Legacy of Chaos
by Kuko-chan
Summary: The Buu Saga's over. A band of sisters have arrived to resurrect an evil beyond imagining. And they plan on turning Videl against everyone, with Gohan caught in the middle. A side to Videl no one's seen before...until now. G/V *Complete* R&R! ^.^
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, this is a very complex story. I thought the summery I wanted was too long, so I've put the long version here. It's about three girls called the Armageddon Sisters. They're on a journey for three crystal cubes that are capable of resurrecting a completely evil deity of theirs named Apocolypse. But first, they need a host for the evil or else nothing will work. And they're able to control those who show even the slightest bit of anger. But the host they need has to have the following requirements: a female, high life energy, and an imbalance of good and evil. Of course, since they're on their way to Earth anyway, the strong female they want is Videl. And the only one who can save her is Gohan. Set roughly a year after Buu. Okay, sorry to hold you up. Continue reading.

Legacy of Chaos Chapter 1 

How many days has it been? Years, come to think of it. They've been searching their whole lives. Looking for what? Their element cubes. They found two so far. And two outta three ain't bad. The third had to be around there somewhere.

"Will you brats hurry up? We're on a deadline!!" screamed an angry woman. She stomped her foot on the dirty ground of the cave she was in.

"Shut ya trap, Doom. We're working as hard as we can," said another woman, her pale purple eyes flickering with anger as she chipped the side of the cavern wall.

"You sure this is the right planet?" asked a third girl, dressed in semi-formal attire. 

"Positive," said the woman known as Doom. "And don't you ever question me again, Peril. Back to work."

"Gee, she seems more grumpy than usual, Crisis," whispered Peril.

"I heard that!" Doom yelled. There was silence for a moment, broken by Crisis.

"FOUND IT!!" she screamed. "I found it!!" Doom was at her side in a second, her white hair flashing behind her.

"Let me see!" She yanked the object from Crisis' hands and examined it. It was a whitish clear crystal cube with a small, red orb in the middle. "This is it! My crystal element!"

"I don't understand why you didn't help us," Peril complained, flipping her blue pigtails around. "We would have found it sooner had you helped us and I'd be in a nice, clean outfit by now."

"Stop complaining!" Doom yelled. She held the crystal with care and walked away from the group. "We must consult the Book of the Morning Star." The other two nodded and followed without another word. They reached the cave's entrance and the sunshine hit them. After walking to a clearing, they found their spaceship. Boarding it, they quickly found a large, heavy book entitled "Book of the Morning Star." Beside it laid two crystal cubes like the one Doom had. One was greenish clear, and the other was bluish clear. The girls crowded around it and flipped to the first page.

"Gather the three elemental cubes, Water, Terrain, and Energy," Doom read aloud. "Bring them to the three temples, left by the ancestors of our people and place them on the altar pointing to our home star, Orin. The energy produced from the crystals, reflecting off Orin should be enough to resurrect Her." Doom let out a laugh. "You see? Persistence did pay off! The statue that incases our grand Sister can be broken. And when it is, all the heavens shall bow before us!" The other two began to laugh.

"Wait, what does it say here?" asked Crisis, her green hair getting in her face. Doom's smirk disappeared.

"Find a sacrifice," she read. "And temporarily use her as the host for the grand Sister's power. She must have a high life force and an imbalance of good and evil, like the Great Mother, Chaos. But beware of her loved ones. They have the power to take those powers away forever. And beware of the golden light. It can extinguish the darkness of the host." Doom cursed under her breath.

"We should have read the fine-print," Peril laughed. Crisis growled.

"This is just freaking great!" she yelled sarcastically. "Where are we gonna find a female worthy enough, or even strong enough to channel the grand Sister's power for those few seconds?" Doom seemed to concentrate.

"Computer!' she called aloud. "Run a scan on the life forms of the planet where the Orin temples are located." The computer complied, beeping and making strange noises.

"Scan complete," it responded. "Planet name: Chikyuu. Life-forms: Humanoids."

"How strong does this female host have to be?" asked Peril.

"At least 1000 ener-watts," replied Doom, reading from the book. "Computer, find any life forms on planet Chikyuu with a 1000 ener-watts rating or higher."

"Scanning..." There was a pause from the computer. "Found: 15 humanoids with a rating higher than a 1000. Two saiya-jins, one namek, one unknown species, three found not to be completely human, and the rest are human. Two found to be female."

"What are the females' race and power rating?"

"Human. Rating first female, 1020. Rating second female, 32 000."

"Second female's DNA id?" Doom asked excitedly. The computer took much longer than before, making Doom tap her foot impatiently on the cold, tile ground.

"Name: Videl Satan. ID #: 325842492." Doom smirked cruelly.

"How a mere human could possibly have that much power, I'll never know. But it's a stroke of luck that she happens to be on this planet." She chuckled.

"So what's the plan?" Crisis asked eagerly. Doom tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Infiltrate planet Chikyuu, kidnap the hostess, use the elemental crystals, and bring forth Apocolypse upon this plane of existence as well as any other that gets in our way." She smirked once again. "Oh yes, the gods will regret locking away our grand Sister in that statue. We'll destroy everything they hold dear, and when the torture's over, we'll kill them all!" Her sisters smiled. "Now, get some sleep, dear sisters. In a matter of days, we'll be on the planet left to us by our ancestors. I'll have the computer put us in chryo-stasis and input all we need to know about Chikyuu, and humanoids." The girls nodded and headed to their separate rooms. Doom turned back to her computer console. "Soon, you wretched Kai. You, Kaioshin, and the rest of you Kai's shall die for what you did to my family. No one messes with the Armageddon Sisters!"

~*~

Over in another part of the galaxy, a male youth was having some trouble of his own.

"There he is!!"

"CRAP!!"

Fangirls piled into the library. He packed his books and jacket and ran for his life.

"Why me?" he whined as he turned a corner down the street. He hit the high gears and took to the sky.

"Wait, come back, Gohan!" the girls screamed from the street below. Gohan stuck his tongue at them. Yes, things had been very hectic since the Buu incident. Now everyone knew he was the Great Saiyaman and everyone knew he was the Golden Fighter. And no one would be smart enough to make the connection back to the little boy who fought Cell so long ago. Thank Kami. That was the last thing Gohan needed. His popularity had gone through the roof when Erasa and Sharpner told everyone what happened at the Tenkaichi Boudokai. People from school whom he didn't even know started talking to him. Every once in a while, a girl or two would throw themselves in front of him for attention, while most others wanted his autograph or something. But just recently, a fan group called, 'The Great Golden Saiyaman' Club, or better known as the 'GGS' Club, was formed and he hasn't had a spare minute since, with all the girls chasing him constantly. 'Boy, some humans need a life,' he thought jokingly to himself. He didn't really feel like flying, so he gave a loud shout, and Kintou'in arrived in less than a second.

"Look!" one girl screamed at the top of her lungs. "He has a magic cloud." All the girls sighed romantically. Gohan shook his head in disgust.

"I hope he'll take me for a ride some time," one girl said dreamily.

"Not bloody likely!" Gohan called from his nimbus. "Kintou'in, take us to Dende's lookout." The cloud obeyed and flew off, taking Gohan with it. The girls sighed again.

"He said something to us!" a girl giggled.

Up in the sky, Gohan gave a long sigh of relief and began enjoying the feeling of wind through his hair. He was glad that things finally calmed down a bit, but he didn't ask for all this attention. A part of him was glad when Satan-san came along and took credit for Buu. That saved Gohan from one more reason to be surrounded by fan girls and reporters. Yes, that's right! Reporters! The press had found out where the 'Great Saiyaman' lived and for the first week after the Tenkaichi Boudokai, they had been there, at his house, day and night, trying to get an interview with the city's greatest super hero. Not only that, but they wanted to ask questions about the whole 'golden' hair thing. That kind of stuff didn't happen everyday. Chichi would have to shoo them off with her fry pan and Goten would scare them with his own strength, but that only made the press more interested in their family, not to mention the return of the 'thought-to-be' deceased Son Goku. That simply brought more questions. Oh well, so much for living the normal life. 

It had been a year since Buu, and it had taken Gohan months to get used to it and the routine. Of course, he'd never tell the press about the Cell thing. That would make things COMPLETELY WORSE. Not only would the on-siege of reporters triple 5 times, he wouldn't be able to go to school. He'd be barricaded in his house all day, all the attention around Satan-san would disappear, and Mr. Satan would resent Gohan for the rest of their lives, which wouldn't be so good because Gohan didn't want to mess up his fragile friendship with Videl. Gohan thought about that.

"My friendship with Videl isn't that fragile, is it?" he said aloud to himself. "Every since she found out I was the one who beat Cell, and the whole Buu incident, she hasn't really talked to me." Then he laughed. "That's only because I haven't had a spare minute to see her, let alone talk to her." Gohan's eyes narrowed when he saw a temple, seemingly floating in the sky on a thin pillar. "Thanks for the ride, Kintou'in. Go back home and see if Goten needs ya." Gohan levitated off the cloud as it sped away, and made his to the palace. He landed one foot down and waited. Just as he expected, Dende and Piccolo came outside to greet him.

"Gohan, how nice to see you!" Dende said in a friendly tone to his childhood friend. Piccolo grunted a greeting.

"Hiya, Dende. Hey Piccolo," Gohan greeted with a smile to his favourite nameks. "How are things here?"

"Not bad," Dende replied. "I've been seeing some interesting things relating to you."

"Really?" Gohan blushed. "Well that's what I came to talk to you about. It's this fan club that started a few weeks ago and these girls won't stop bugging me. I got kicked outta science class a couple days ago for causing a disturbance. I just don't know what to do! I asked Vegeta for help, and he simply said, 'Blast them all away.' Some help he was." Dende gave a small laugh.

"Girl troubles," he simply stated. "The only thing I can figure is if they see you with another girl, they'll back off, especially if they know the girl's strong." Piccolo grunted at Dende's suggestion. Gohan suddenly got happier.

"That's it!" he cheered. "And I know just the girl, too!" He began to take off. "Thanks Dende-sama! Later Piccolo!" And with that, he was gone. Piccolo growled.

"Dende, you shouldn't have hinted at that," he hissed.

"What?" Dende asked innocently. "I was only helping. He had doubts."

"Yeah, but you're not allowed to interfere."

"His romance with her is at kindergarten level. I think it's time for a boost." Dende gave Piccolo a smirk. "And don't tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing in my position." Piccolo sighed and gave in.

"Whatever."

~*~


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, I understand that at the end of the Buu Saga, they wished for everyone to forget about the whole incident. No one's supposed to remember at all. But for the sake of argument, let's say in this ALTERNATE universe, they didn't wish for everyone to forget. Yeah, the Buu Saga, the World Tournament, everything is still fresh in their memories. 

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 2

"Lime! Don't forget to take out the trash!" an old man called from inside a shop. The young girl, Lime, trotted out, carrying a garbage can. She hummed happily to herself as she placed the can at the side of the dirt road.

"Done, Grandpa!" she called back inside. She was about to turn around to leave, when the ground started to shake and the trash can tumbled over. Lime spun around and glared at the can. "Don't you go tipping on me!" she barked at it. Carefully, she set it upright and turned to leave again, when the ground began to rumble once more. "Darn it!" She twirled around to pick up the can again, but froze in her tracks when she saw a huge spacecraft fly overhead. She could have sworn her jaw hit the ground at that moment as the ship landed a few miles away. Ignoring the discarded bin, she let her curiosity get the better of her and ran to the landing site of the starship. Just like in an old sci-fi movie, the main door opened slowly, making fizzing noise the whole time. Lime swallowed nervously as a few figures could be made from the steam and smoke. When the dust settled, three women could be seen, one with white hair, one with blue hair, and one with green hair. They stepped off the landing platform and the woman with white hair pressed something on her wrist watch. In a flash, the spaceship was gone as if it was capsulized. Then their attention was drawn to the gaping Lime. The green-haired girl grinned.

"What do you think we should do with her, Doom?" she asked sinisterly. Doom tilted her head to the side while Lime tried to inch her way back.

"She's not worth our time," Doom replied. She walked right up to the frightened girl, placing her hands on either side of Lime's head. "_Dowasure no omoiokosu, tabini omoiokosu no dowasure." [1] Suddenly, Lime's eyes got hazy._

"What was that?" the blue-haired girl asked.

"An old forgetfulness spell," Doom answered casually. She studied Lime's facial appearance before removing her hands and snapping her fingers. Lime became alert and looked around, confused. "Excuse me, miss?" Doom said, slapping on a fake concerned voice. "Are you alright? You dazed out for a moment." Lime shook her head clear.

"I'm…fine…" she murmured. Doom secretly smirked.

"Good. Do you happen to know which direction Satan City is in?" [2]

"Uh, yeah," Lime replied, getting her thoughts back. "It's just east from here, a few miles down the road. You can't miss it!"

"Thanks. By the way, I'm Doom…er…Dune Armagen and these are my sisters, Pearl and Christy."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Lime." 

"I better get going. Later." She pulled a capsule from her pocket and tossed it a few feet in front of her. Seconds later, a convertible popped out of the contraption. The three sisters got in the sleek car a drove off. Lime scratched her head before looking at the huge crater before her.

"Where'd that come from?!" she shrieked. But before she could think about, she suddenly forgot it was even there. Turning to leave, she didn't even acknowledge it again.

*~*~*~*

Gohan looked back and forth before sneaking out of the school library and down the empty halls of Orange Star High. He had shown up early for school so he could talk to Videl. He knew no one would be at school this early. That meant no fan girls. His locker came into sight as he thought, 'Home free!' But just as he opened his locker, a hand slammed it shut.

"Hey!" he yelled, forgetting to actually look at the person. "What's the big id - oh! Hi Videl!" He quickly blushed when he realized he had been yelling at the very girl he needed to talk to. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, one hand behind his head in the classic Son pose. Videl grinned, showing she forgave him.

"Getting paranoid?" she asked smoothly. Gohan chuckled.

"Uh…yeah, I guess…" he replied, grinning as he reopened his locker. "I guess you kinda spooked me." Videl smirked.

"I didn't expect to see you here so early," she said, examining her fingers. "Usually you're late."

"Uh…actually, I came to see you." Videl froze as a blush crept up her cheeks.

"Me? Why?"

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor," Gohan answered, smiling. Videl found her breath once more and continued to look at her finger tips. 'For a second there…' she thought silently. 'I thought he wanted to see _me.'_

"What can I do for ya?" she readily accepted.

"Well…" Gohan trailed off when he sensed a hundred tiny ki's heading his way. "I'll tell you later." He hurriedly snatched his books from his locker, slammed it shut, and began running. Videl stood for a second before a gust of wind blew past her, followed by a hundred girls, screaming Gohan's name. She smiled sensitively for Gohan. At least now she knew why she hadn't been able to talk to him for quite some time.

*~*~*~*

Gohan forced his way into his first period class and hurled the door shut, slamming on the faces of his chasers and stalkers. To his surprise, Videl was sitting on his desk, waiting.

"How'd you get here before me?" he half demanded.

"No time to explain," she laughed. "Seriously, though. I got here through the window. You can fly you dolt!"

"Oh yeah…" He practically had to crawl his way to his desk and slumped in his chairs. "I feel like a human who was just stuck in a cage with a lion." Videl giggled.

"You want sympathy or some cheese to go with your whine?" she joked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think? Y'know, for the school's smartest kid, you can be pretty dense sometimes."

"Shaddup!" Gohan jokingly sulked.

"Now what did you want to ask me?"

"Oh yeah! As you can tell, the fan girl situation is getting out of hand. So Dende-sama suggested –" He was cut off by a high pitched welcome by none other than Erasa.

"Videl! Gohan! Great to see you guys here!" she greeted. "And early for once! What happened? Didn't do your usually quickie this morning?" The two teen warriors blushed furiously.

"Erasa!" the both squealed, clearly embarrassed. Even Gohan knew what she meant by 'quickie'. He may have been home-schooled for most of his life, but he had been around Erasa, Videl, and Sharpner long enough to get corrupted by them. 

Moments later, Sharpner walked in, his usual 'Hey nerd, hey babes' routine. He casually draped his arm over Erasa's shoulder.

"What's up? You and Gohan are early?" Sharpner remarked to Videl. "Did you arrive early to announce that you two are officially dating finally?" Again, the daughter of Mr. Satan and the demi-saiya-jin blushed once more.

"Where is everyone getting these ideas?!" Gohan screamed. "First Krillin, then my mom, then Bulma, now you guys!! When will it end?!"

"There, there, Gohan," Sharpner comforted. "It'll end either when you admit you like Videl, or when you kill yourself. Both options sound pretty embarrassing to me."

"Why me…?" Gohan began banging his head on his desk. Luckily, before the conversation could go on, the bell rang and in barged the Language Arts teacher, Ms. Brady, followed by the rest of the class. 

"Okay, class!" Ms. Brady said nicely. "Please open your Japanese books to page 34. We'll be studying adverbs, adjectives, and pronouns." The class complied. Ms. Brady began reading off the page, when they were interrupted by a knocking on the door. "Ah! That must be the three new students." 

"Three? Wow!" mused Erasa. Ms. Brady placed her book down and opened the door. In walked three teenage girls. 

"Students," their teacher announced. "Please welcome Dune, Christy, and Pearl Armagen to the class."

"They're sisters!" Erasa stated the obvious. "How cool!" Gohan stared at the newcomers intently. Something about Dune's expression sent shivers down his spine.

"I have a bad feeling about her…" he whispered more to himself.

"Girls, there should be a few empty seats at the top level [3]," Ms. Brady said, pointing behind Videl's row. The three sisters walk self-consciously towards the stairs. As they climbed the small staircase, Dune and Gohan made eye contact briefly. In those few split seconds, Gohan was suddenly filled with fear and grief.

But just as quickly as it came, it was gone and Dune was sitting in her seat behind them with her sisters. Videl gently reached behind Erasa and shook Gohan from his thoughts.

"You okay?" she whispered. Gohan nodded numbly. He couldn't quite shake off that dreadful feeling he had gotten when he looked into Dune's eyes. It was the same feeling he had felt when he fought Cell and Majin Buu. He looked over at Videl and noticed the concerned look on her face.

"Don't worry," he said, slapping on the Son grin to keep her from distressing. "I'm fine. Really!" That answer seemed to satisfy her and she turned back to the front.

*~*~*~*

Dune eyed the raven-haired boy sitting in the row in front of her. 'He might be trouble…' She then turned her attention to the girl sitting two seats away from the boy.  Quietly, she checked the picture in her purse. _Name: Videl Satan. ID #: 325842492. Dune smirked and tapped her two sisters on the shoulders. They looked at her with interest. Dune pointed to the picture and then to Videl. They both clued in and smiled as well._

"We found her," Dune whispered so only they could hear. "And while we're at it, I think we found the golden light."

*~*~*~*

[1] _Dowasure no omoiokosu, tabini omoiokosu no dowasure: Roughly translates to "Forget to remember, when you remember to forget." I could be wrong._

[2] Now before you all ask, "How do they know about Satan City," keep in mind they have knowledge of everything about Earth and its people.

[3] Remember the way the classes are set up in DBZ? Each row of desks are one level higher as you get to the back of the class. It sorta reminds you of a collage classroom. I think it's like that so the teachers can see every student and the students can see the front of the class.


	3. Chapter 3

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 3

At third period, the lunch bell rang and the students of Orange Star High filed outside to eat in various places. Gohan and his friends met up at the usual bleachers out on the field.

"So you guys," Erasa said, beginning the conversation, like usual. "Heard anything about the new kids?"

"I dunno," Sharpner said, picking at his pizza. "They seem very quiet and secretive."

"I wonder what it's like to have triplet sisters!" Erasa giggled.

"Actually, they're not triplets," Videl corrected. "Pearl skipped a couple grades, and Dune failed 11th and 12th grade. She was supposed to graduate last year before us. Christy's the only one who's in the right grade."

"Where'd you hear all that?" Gohan asked.

"Look who you're talking to. I can find out anything about anyone anytime."

"It took you weeks to find out I was Saiyaman, and even then, it was because I let it slip." Videl open her mouth to speak, but quickly shut it, knowing she'd say something stupid. She simply glared at Gohan. 

"Didn't you want to ask me a favour?" she demanded instead.

"Oh yeah! The girl problem. Could you-"

Erasa paused in mid-chew when she spotted the new girls, sitting by themselves under a nearby tree. "Hey guys!" she cheered, interrupting Gohan and getting her friends' attention. "There they are! Let's go say 'hi' to them!" The others groaned and muttered some sort of excuse. "Oh c'mon! You guys are no fun." Erasa grabbed Gohan and Sharpner by the backs of their shirts and dragged them with surprising strength.

Dune looked up in surprise when a blond girl approached her, two guys in tow. Dune recognized one of boys as the one who made eye contact with her.

"Hey, you're the new girl, right?" the blond greeted, dropping the two guys. "I'm Erasa and these two are my good friends, Gohan and Sharpner."

"Why does his name get said first?" Sharpner asked in a whiney voice.

"My friend, Videl, is over there," Erasa said to Dune, ignoring Sharpner's comment. Dune raised an eyebrow at the mention of Videl's name. Videl walked over to the group and practically fell to the ground, bored. 

"Videl Satan?" Dune asked curiously.

"The one and only!" Erasa boasted. "Daughter of the three-time champion and saviour twice in a row, Mr. Satan himself." Dune tugged on her sister's shirt, getting Pearl's attention. They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Pearl turned around, like nothing had happened. Erasa, of course, dismissed that strange interaction, but Gohan had picked up on something…something he couldn't quite figure out.

"So those are your sisters?" Sharpner asked slyly, hoping to get a date. Dune shot him a sharp glare. "Never mind…"

"Are you the Great Saiyaman?" Christy asked Gohan. The young demi-saiya-jin blushed slightly.

"Uh…yeah…" he answered cautiously. "That's me…"

"Look's like you were right, Dune," Pearl snickered. "Hey Gohan, if you're Saiyaman, would that mean you're the Gold Fighter too?"

"Um…yeah…" The three sisters smirked. Their questions were making him uncomfortable. They knew which buttons to push now. 

"So how exactly do you make your hair turn blond anyway?"

"I'm…not sure," Gohan answered truthfully. He wasn't sure what made his hair blond besides being half saiya-jin.

"I remember hearing about an alien attack when I was 7," Dune said smugly.  

'Crap!'

"My sisters were too young to remember, but these aliens were called…saiya-jins." Gohan began to squirm. "How come you call yourself _Saiya_man? Any connection?" Everyone looked at Gohan as he started to sweat bullets. He began laughing nervously.

"No…what makes you say that? What, you think I'm an alien or something?" he said quickly, covering up. "No way! I remember that fight too. I thought it'd be cool to name a super hero after that. Besides, only two aliens showed up and they were adults. I was five when the whole thing happened." Dune grinned.

"Curious…you remember more details than I do, even though you were younger. You speak as if you were actually there."

"No! Ah…I mean…no, I wasn't there. Why would a five year old show up at a major fight?"

"You tell me, Gold boy." Dune packed up her things and nudged her sisters. "Let's go," she said to them. When they were out of sight, Gohan breathed a sigh of relief.

"What strange girls…" he muttered to himself.

"They sure were nice!" Erasa exclaimed. Gohan gave her a weird glace.

"Erasa, were you even paying attention to them?" he asked.

"Yay, so they were curious. Big whoop. I still think they were nice."

*~*~*~*

The final bell of the day rang and hundreds of students left their classes to go home. Gohan headed straight to Bulma's house. He needed to speak with Vegeta. '_Whoa! I actually need to talk with _Vegeta _of all people,'_ he thought to himself. The dome-shaped house came into view quickly and he descended to the front door and rang the bell. Moments later, the saiya-jin prince himself answered the door.

"Brat, you should keep your ki masked at all times," he warned. "I could sense you a mile away." He smirked his casual trademark grin. "So what do you want? Another ridiculous outfit to play Saiyaman in?"

"Actually, Vegeta," Gohan corrected. "I came to speak with you."

"Me?" the older saiya-jin chuckled. "I don't know whether I should slam the door on your face or be flattered." He pretended to give it some thought. "I'm gonna go with door #1." He started closing the door, but Gohan quickly stepped in.

"Vegeta, I'm serious," he said, agitated. "There's something wrong at school. We got these three new girls in the class and-"

"Wait…girls?" Vegeta scoffed. "Forget it! I'm not getting involved with your twisted love life. For Kami's sake, isn't this the kind of stuff you're supposed to talk about with your baka father? Wait a second. Scratch that. He's probably too stupid to know what the hell you're talking about."

"That's not it!" Gohan yelled. "There's something weird about them. They know things no normal humans should know. And they're hiding something." Vegeta's eyes narrowed.

"Such as…?"

"I'm not sure." Gohan began walking to the living room so he could sit.

"If you're not sure, then where do you get your assumptions from?"

"Well, this morning, when they walked into the class, the oldest one gave me this creepy stare."

"So she judges books by their covers. Big deal."

"It's not just that. When I looked in her eyes, I got this feeling…I can't describe. Didn't you ever feel…terrified by someone's stare?" Vegeta looked back and forth.

"What you're about to hear, I don't want you repeating to another soul. If you do, I'll rip out your eyes and shove them down your throat!" Gohan gulped. "Back when I was a hell of a lot younger, I used to look up to my father because he could scare anyone, frozen in their spot, simply by staring at them, me included."

"That was how I felt when she looked at me. It reminded me of Cell." Vegeta gave that some thought.

"What else happened?"

"Well, at lunch, she and her sisters started throwing questions at me. They were straying dangerously close to the truth."

"The truth…?"

"That we're aliens."

"Oh. What kind of questions?"

"They asked if I was Saiyaman and the Gold Fighter. I said yeah. They were asking how my hair turns blond. I told them I didn't know. Then they brought up the incident when you first showed up. They didn't say your name, though, but they asked if there was any connection between me and the saiya-jins." Vegeta pondered a bit.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, just one more thing. The oldest, Dune, nudged the youngest, Pearl, and they sat there for a few seconds, just staring at each other, not blinking! Then Pearl turned around and went back to her lunch." Vegeta gave a slightly impressed look.

"Telepathy. They were using their thoughts to communicate."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Telepathy involves full eye contact without blinking. They could be trouble. Keep a close eye on them, boy. We don't want another Majin Buu crisis on our hands."

"Thanks, Vegeta-san. I'll keep you informed. Uh…do you think I should tell the others?"

"No need to involve them. Only if the problem escalates should you involve them."

"Alright. I better get home. See ya later!" Gohan grabbed his book bag and headed out the door.

*~*~*~*

"Gohan! Where have you been?" Chi-chi demanded. Gohan shrugged casually. 

"Fan girls," he answered simply. He didn't want to alarm his mother by telling her that he was at Vegeta's house, discussing possible new enemies. She seemed to accept his answer.

"Oh…well have a seat. We were about to have dinner." Gohan eagerly took his seat and began eating. "So, how was school?"

"We got a couple new students."

"Oh really? Guys or girls?"

"Mooomm…" Gohan whined.

"They're girls!" Goten laughed.

"Yeah, so what? They scare the crap outta me!"

"Gohan, watch your language," Chi-chi stated firmly.

"It doesn't matter if they're girls," Goku added. "He wouldn't have the hots for them anyway because he's got Videl."

"Dad!!" Gohan yelped as he blushed. "Videl and I are only friends!"

"You've been telling me that for nearly a year. Ask her out sometime! It wouldn't hurt."

"Yeah, but…" Gohan couldn't think of an adequate excuse, so he stuck his tongue out.

"Nice comeback," Goten snickered.

"Shut up." Gohan secretly flicked some rice at his younger brother. "And what have you been doing all day? Playing video games?"

"I'll have you know that Ico is actually making me smarter. Mom said so.[1]"

"Yeah right! You can't even get past the draw bridges."

"Shut up!"

*~*~*~*

"All the key players have been identified," Doom announced proudly to her sisters. They were in their ship, at an abandoned clearing somewhere within the forest, but close to society. They had managed to transform it into a capsule-looking house so it would go unnoticed. 

"We have found the host," Doom continued. "We know who the Golden Light is, and all that needs to be done is locating the three Temples of Orin. Get the Book of the Morning Star. We need the coordinates." Peril heaved the heavy book to the table and opened to a random page. They flipped through until they found what they were looking for.

"'The Temples of Orin can be found along 29 degrees north 58' 51" and 31 degrees east.' Crisis, get a world map!" Crisis complied and fetched a world map of Chikyuu. Doom skimmed through until she found the location as specified in the book. 

"So the temples are in Egypt?"

*~*~*~*

A hooded figure sat in a dark room, illuminated only by the window to space and a glowing sphere. She had been recently awakened by a disturbance of unknown calibre. She breathed sharply when she saw her crystal ball change from blue to red.

"Should the blue meet the red, it means trouble," the figure whispered. She drew back her hood, revealing a woman with pale lavender skin and pale blue hair. "Time's not on my side. They've discovered the secrets and time's running out."

*~*~*~*

[1] 'Ico' is a PS2 game which involves rescuing a dumbass princess and solving many puzzles as well as traveling through various mazes and such. 


	4. Chapter 4

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 4

A/N: I've decided to lift any changes that Kaioshin (Supreme Kai) made during the Buu Saga (e.g. the fusion he made with Kibito). I honestly don't like the way he looks by the end of the Buu saga.

"So you're from…the U.S.?" Erasa asked. Dune nodded as she nibbled her sandwich. "Wow! That must be a pretty big change. You speak Japanese pretty good for a immigrant." [1]

"Arigato!" Dune said with a smile, showing off her use of the language. Dune, Videl, and Erasa were sitting on the bleachers by themselves, eating lunch. The guys and Christy were playing 'teen' soccer while Pearl was hanging out with more posh girls.

"So tell us more about yourselves," Videl suggested, very curious of the new kids.

"My parents died in a…fatal car accident. Since I'm of legal age, I took custody of my younger sisters and we moved here for a new life." Erasa and Videl gave looks of sympathy.

"I'm sorry," Videl apologized. "I didn't know." She looked away, slightly embarrassed. "But what about relatives?"

"None we could find."

"That's sad," Erasa said. "But at least you got us now!" That somehow lightened the mood. Dune decided it was time for a subject change.

"So Videl," she began. "How long have you and Gohan known each other?" Videl blushed somewhat.

"About a year," she answered truthfully. Dune noted the blush and stored that information away for later.

"And are you guys romantically involved?" That sent Videl in a frantic blush of embarrassment, so bad that she couldn't even reply.

"Gah…I muh…uh…he…rom…eh?" she fumbled.

"What Videl means to say," Erasa covered. "Is that she and Gohan are not an item. So he's up for grabs."

"That's not what I said!" Videl protested.

"But you two aren't involve, am I right?" Dune asked.

"Well…no…" Videl said carefully.

"Why? Gonna make a move on him, Dune?" Erasa asked slyly. Dune did not react like Videl and Erasa expected. Instead, she snarled slightly.

"Unlikely," she scoffed. "Videl, has he ever lied to you?" Videl turned crimson.

"What's with all the personal questions?" she debated.

"Oh I'm sorry," Dune replied, eyes closed. But the question did have Videl thinking. 'Has he ever lied?' she thought to herself.

There were a few incidents she could bring to mind, but they were lies to protect his family's privacy, so she could forgive him. Although one lie had ticked her off. The one about his father. When she had asked if Gohan's father was with another woman since he was never around, he said yes. That wasn't true at all. It wasn't even remotely protecting anyone.

"He's told a few…" Videl answered Dune. "Maybe once or twice, but with good reason."

"I see." Dune pretended to check her watch. "I've gotta go find my other two sisters. We need to meet after school and I have to tell them." Erasa and Videl nodded, understanding. "See ya!" Dune grabbed her bag and walked on to the soccer field where Christy was.

As she approached, a stray soccer ball came flying her way.

"Dune! Look out!" Sharpner shouted. Using speed that even Burter of the Ginyu Force would be envious of, Dune kicked the ball high into the air and across the field. All the players stood frozen and shocked. Especially the goalie, which happened to be Gohan, who standing just a few feet in front of the ball. 

Dune had managed to score a goal.

But that's not what they were shocked about. They were shocked about…

"The ball's on FIRE!!" yelled Gohan. A couple teens ran to get the hose while Gohan took his sweater off and tried to muffle the flames.

Christy slapped a hand over her face in embarrassment. She stomped over to Dune and dragged her off the field to a safe distance away.

"What were you thinking?!" Christy screamed. "Showing off your powers to all those over-reacting humans?"

"Oh shut up!" Dune yelled. "I'm the one in charge so you take orders from me!" She glared at her younger sister. "Now go find Pearl!"

Not even ten minutes later, Christy had retrieved Pearl.

"Good," Dune said, closing her eyes. "Now, I found out new information that might help us. The Hostess has a crush on the Golden Light. We might be able to use this to our advantage."

"Like?" Pearl asked curiously.

"Turn her against him and him alone."

*~*~*~*

"Back so soon?" Vegeta asked, amused. He opened the door wide enough so Gohan could get in.

"I got new info on them," he began, getting straight to the point. "They're strong. And unbelievably fast! At least Dune is." Vegeta raised an eyebrow as the two made their way to the living room where Trunks was watching TV. "We were playing soccer and I was in net. Then she walks on the field and when the ball went flying at her head, she jumped up and kicked it so fast that I didn't even catch her movements. And believe me, it takes a lot to move faster than I can see. And not only that, the ball was moving so fast that it caught fire! It burned a hole right through the net!" Suddenly, Vegeta burst out laughing. Gohan and Trunks looked at him weirdly. This lasted for five minutes before he regain some composer.

"She…set the ball on fire?" he laughed in between chuckles. "That's classic!"

"That's not funny," Gohan grumbled. "I don't know. Like you said, she could be trouble! If she could move faster than I could pick up-"

"That's only because you've been slacking off in training. You probably weren't focused or prepared. Stop beating yourself up about this before I beat you up!" Gohan gulped. Trunks snorted a bit before quickly shutting up when Vegeta shot him a look.

*~*~*~*

Kaioshin let out a heavy sigh. Watching the entire universe, underworld, heaven, and those feuding Kais, it was more than enough to drive him over the edge. He definitely had his had his work cut out for him. He sighed again when he got a knock on his realm door. He installed a realm door for his planet for easy access, designed for souls who wanted to visit. He had become much more lenient since Buu had been defeated. A few visitors every now and then was nice.

"Come in!" he called. The portal opened and North Kai came rushing in.

"Kaioshin!" he said, forcing back his chuckles. "I just came up with the greatest joke!"

"Not now, North Kai," Kaioshin said as politely as possible. "I'm a little busy."

"This'll only take a second."

"Please, North Kai. I'm terribly busy. I have many errands to run." North pretended to pout.

"Fine," he whined. "If you insist." He dragged his heels to the realm door. "Are you sure?" Kaioshin looked up from the crystal the Old Kaio gave him.

"Positive."

"C'mon! It'll only take a second!" Kaioshin sighed and gave in.

"Fine."

"Great! Now, why did the chicken cross the playground?" Kaioshin nearly fell over. A crossing chicken joke?! That was the best he could come up with? "To get to the other _slide_! Get it?!" The blue Kai burst out laughing. Kaioshin mildly smiled but quickly shooed the comedian of a god away. North Kai grinned and left. 

Moments later, there was another knock. 

"North Kai, if that's you, I said I was busy!" Kaioshin was quickly losing his patience. Not even five seconds later, the realm door open. "North Kai!" Kaioshin looked up, expecting to see the blue god, but instead, his eyes were met by that of a woman with pale purple skin, and light blue hair.

"I assure you, I'm not North Kai," she stated calmly. "In fact…he used to work for me at one point." Kaioshin's eyes widened in recognition.

"You're…you're…Sukoshin!" he gasped. "The Supreme Kai from 10, 000 years ago!" Sukoshin grinned warmly.

"Yes, and you, dear Kaioshin, are in my chair," she chuckled.

*~*~*~*

The next day at school, Videl and her friends got to class on time and ready for school. At least everyone but Gohan. He got caught by the fan girls…again. School normally starts at 8:00am, but Gohan came rolling in, or more like barging in, at around 8:15am.

"Late again, Mr. Son?" Ms. Brady asked politely.

"Sorry..." Gohan whimpered. He hauled himself to his seat next to Erasa and let his head bang against the desk. Erasa peeked up from her book and nudged him.

"What happened?" she whispered questioningly. "You look terrible. Did you get any sleep late night?" Gohan lifted his head weakly.

"They…found me…" he uttered. "That annoying GGS club found my address. They were at my house all night! My mom thought it was amusing, and my dad didn't really notice. The only one who was as equally annoyed as I was last night was my little brother. That's only because he says they were breaking his concentration while he was playing Ico." Erasa gave him a look of pity.

"Poor kid," she said, sympathy lining her voice. "You go ahead and take a nap. I'll cover for ya." Gohan raised his head a little higher.

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure! What are friends for?" Erasa winked at him. He managed to control his blush and slumped forward in his chair so his head was resting on his desk.

The bell rang an hour later, signalling first period over. Erasa shook Gohan awake and told him class was over. He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to awake himself.

"I can't believe I slept through first period!" he yawned. He followed his friends out the door and went to his locker. To his dismay, Dune was waiting for him.

"Gohan, how did you sleep?" she asked, smirking. Gohan rubbed his eyes.

"Not well. Can you believe the GGS club found my house? I live in the wilderness, for Dende's sake!"

"Too bad. They'll probably be there awhile." She pushed herself off his locker. "See you later." Gohan stared at her as she walked away. He shook his head clear and opened his locker. 'I just don't understand her motives.'

*~*~*~*

Videl wandered around the school on fifth period. Her math teacher had asked her to run an errand. Passing by the main hall, she spotted a crowd of girls hovering around a door. Deciding to go in for a closer look, Videl squeezed her way passed the crowd and saw what they were all staring, or rather drooling, over. Gohan, oblivious to the attention he was receiving, was in the library, doing what he did best: studying. The little fan girls weren't only staring, they were taking pictures. Videl shook her head, annoyed that these girls had nothing better to do with their free time and began shooing them away, threatening to get the principal. Once everyone was gone, she tapped on the window of the door and got Gohan's attention. He looked up and at her, then grinned. She sighed. He had no idea how many pictures of him were going to get published on the net in the next 24 hours.

Videl walked away from the library and continued her errand. Something had to be done about those fan girls. They obviously were driving Gohan insane, and now they were starting to bug Videl. 

'Why should they be bugging?' she thought. 'After all, fan girls are just girls who will never get the man of their dreams.' But something else was bothering the daughter of Mr. Satan. There was always that one chance that one of those girls actually might end up getting a date with Gohan. He was just a sucker for that kind of thing. The problem with him was that he could never say no to a girl. It almost made her jealous. 

'What? I'm not jealous! He wants nothing to do with those girls!' Then again, he had once mentioned that he didn't really mind, as side from them following him everywhere. Did he actually like the attention? 

'Yeah right,' Videl thought. 'Like he's an attention-starved teen.' She pushed that nagging thought to the back of her mind and continued to the math office where she was supposed to make her errand.

*~*~*~*

"Phase one is complete," Dune declared. "The witnesses for Plan B are in place. Now all we need is to set up plan A." The sisters were at home once more from a day at school.

"You are so gay," Pearl remarked. "I can't believe you named plan A: Operation Rumours, and plan B: Operation Deadly Kiss. What kind of moron names their plans?"

"Shut up," Dune sighed. "Shut up before I bitch-slap you!" Pearl squeaked and backed up. "Anyways! Crisis, you know what to do. Peril, start the rumour tomorrow." The others nodded and went their separate ways. Dune checked her digital watch, which had a programmed calendar. She bit her bottom lip when she saw the date. March 3rd. She had a little under a month to get things going in full swing. "When the spring equinox occurs, all hell's gonna break loose."

*~*~*~*

"Vegeta?" Bulma whispered softly. She had checked the gravity room for him, but was nowhere to be seen. Allowing her emotional bond to guide her, she found herself in one of her many labs located on the Capsule housing grounds. Hunched over a computer, Vegeta seemed to be looking at something…or looking _for_ something.

"Vegeta!" she whispered loudly, if there were such a thing. Her voice stunned him, for he had not been paying attention to her ki at the moment.

"Woman!" he hissed. "Don't you know better than to sneak up on a saiya-jin? Let alone a fully charged super saiya-jin?"

"I was wondering where…" She trailed off when she spotted the contents of the computer screen. "What are you doing?" Vegeta gave a humph.

"Looking for information…" he said secretively in his Vegeta fashion. Bulma gave a curious look.

"Looking for what information?" she inquired.

"Looking for information regarding a few trouble-making humans giving that brat, Gohan a hard time." This statement made Bulma gasp. Not because of his motives, but because of his intentions.

"You're actually going to help Gohan? I thought you didn't like him."

"Three things. One, I don't dislike him for him. I dislike him because he doesn't like to fight. Not enough saiya-jin in him. Two, it's not him I really dislike. It's his worthless, baka father. And three, I'm helping him because I don't think these trouble-makers are even human. They pose a threat and I want it dealt with before anything bad happens." Now Bulma was shocked. First, he just openly admitted that he actually was fond of 'Kakorrot's' spawn. And second, he was in fact interested in ensuring Earth's safety. Those were things that weren't to be associated with grumpy Vegeta. 

Snapping out of her shock, she said, "How do you plan on helping?" Vegeta smirked.

"Simple. Find out if they're really humans." He pointed to the screen. "Their last name is Armagen. I did a thorough search on the Earth's planetary ID system after hacking into it, and came up null. So I looked on the databases of the Japanese Immigrant system as well. See, they're supposed to keep track of every immigrant who comes into the country. Again, no results. I've come to the conclusion that they obviously have no records of being on Earth. It's like they never existed." Bulma stood, stunned and slack-jawed. "Woman?" Vegeta sighed and poked her shoulder, shattering her silence.

"How did you…I didn't know…you never told me…" she stuttered.

"What, you didn't really think I was computer illiterate, did you?" Vegeta asked, miffed. "For crying out loud, I worked for Freeza of all people! I had to know computer basics as well as how to hack, reroute signals, and understand computer code! This human-based technology is child's play to even a third-class saiya-jin warrior, although Kakorrot wouldn't be the best example. We saiya-jins are not as dumb as you may think." Vegeta finished his speech by closing Bulma's open jaw. "Now go to sleep so I can finish my work." She nodded numbly and turned to leave.

"Uh, just one more thing," she said just before she left. "If you know all this…do you know how to cook?"

"A million times better than you," Vegeta answered truthfully, staring at the screen.

"Why didn't you even cook meals for us?" Bulma demanded. Vegeta turned to her and smirked.

"You never asked." He turned his attention back to the computer. "Goodnight." Bulma nodded once more, still getting over her shock. No matter how long she had known him, there were always more secrets he could hide.

[1] For the sake of argument, let's pretend they're all speaking Japanese but it's translated.


	5. Chapter 5

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 5

A/N: Warning. Extreme OOC moments brought to you by the makers of Mary Sue, the best gosh darn crap on the net!

"Will you catch me if I fall?"

"Of course! Don't be afraid." Videl sucked in a deep breath as she levitated above the ground, inching ever so slowly, higher and higher. "That's it! Just fly," Gohan encouraged from below. Videl looked into his eyes.

"Please don't let me die," she whispered.

Gohan sprung up in bed, panting. He wiped his forehead, trying to shake that dream away. Once he caught his breath, he checked the time. 4:45am. 'May as well get up now.' He threw the covers off and got dressed. 'What does that dream mean?' He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was amiss. 'Videl looked so scared in the dream. She couldn't have been afraid to fly. She's done it a million times!' Shaking off the feeling, he went down to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. To his surprise, his father was already awake.

"Hey dad," he greeted. "What are you doing awake so early? You usually get up at 6:00." Goku looked at his son seriously.

"I had…the weirdest dream just now," he admitted. "It felt so real." Gohan's jaw dropped.

"You're kidding!" he exclaimed. "I just had a weird dream too! What was yours about?"

"The Earth…" Goku replied. "It was burning. And it looked like V-" He stopped, looking back at Gohan. "Nevermind."

"No, continue."

"Well…it looked like Videl was responsible." 

*Dream*

Goku was floating high above the Earth. So high, in fact, that it appeared as if he was just outside the atmosphere. The planet was half red and half blue. The red side was 'conquering' the blue. Seconds later, the entire planet was red. Goku looked to his left and saw a woman, watching with glee. She turned to him and smirked.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she asked. "Armageddon is a place. And it was brought to Earth. Apocalypse was always here. Waiting, and gazing east." Goku gave a puzzled look just before the dream ended.

*End Dream*

Gohan's eyebrows shot up. Goku waved his hand around and grinned. 

"But it was just a dream," he assured. "And besides, the girl looked kinda like Videl, but I don't think it was her. This girl had black eyes and a whole bunch of piercings. Plus, she was wearing black leather. Videl never wears that stuff." Gohan shrugged.

"Yeah, guess you're right. My dream was kinda short. All that happened was Videl floating in the air and she told me 'Don't let me die.' Weird, huh?"

"Yeah." Goku shrugged. "Probably best if we didn't look too much into it." Gohan nodded. Then something caught his attention in the window. He took a quick peek and spotted several members of the GGS club waiting for him.

"Gohan!" one screamed. "Can I have your autograph?!" Gohan groaned and slammed he window shut, closing the curtains afterwards.

"Ha, ha!" Goku chuckled. "Looks like you got some admirers."

"More like stalkers."

*~*~*~*

After deceiving the GGS members that morning, Gohan managed to get to class on time. He stumbled in class just as the bell rang. 

"Hey! Gohan!" Sharpner called form his seat. "On time for a change. Congrats!" Gohan smiled weakly. To tell the truth, because of the strange dream he had, he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. 'And all I want to do right now is punch the next person who bugs me.' 

He was surprised to see Videl missing from her chair. But before he could think about where she might be, Videl herself came rushing into class.

"Sorry I was late," she apologized to Ms. Brady. "Crime."

"Why wasn't Gohan there?" Dune asked loudly, unimpressed. "Isn't it Saiyaman's job to help her?" A couple students looked at Gohan.

"What?" he yelled, getting slightly ticked off. "If I wasn't barricaded in my house by that GGS club, I'd be more help!"

"Look, it was no problem!" Videl defended. "Saiyaman's not always gonna be there. So what?" She took her seat and gave Gohan a quick smile.

Behind her, Dune frowned.

"Breaking their friendship might be tougher than I thought," she whispered very quietly. 

"Hey Gohan," Erasa said quietly. "You look like you didn't sleep again. Wanna take a nap? I'll cover for you again."

"Thanks a lot, Erasa," Gohan sighed as he rested his head on his desk.

*~*~*~*

When first period ended, Pearl prepared to carry out her plan. She pulled aside some of the biggest gossips in 12th grade.

"You guys will never believe what I heard!" she squealed, trying to act like them.

"Ooh, juicy gossip!" Angela cheered. "C'mon! Out with it." Pearl looked back and forth, giving emphasis to her announcement.

"I heard this from Gohan himself," she whispered. The other girls gasped dramatically. "He said that Videl doesn't really get late because of crime-fighting." She leaned in closer. "She always late because she busy buying drugs." The others stared, stunned, then suddenly, they burst out laughing.

"That's a good one," Diana scoffed. "Videl? A drug-addict? I don't think so."

"Yeah, you said Gohan told you that one?" Angela giggled. "He's probably yanking your chain." Pearl glared at them as she growled. All of a sudden, she brightened and smiled pleasantly.

"Yeah, you guys are right," she laughed. "After all, if I told you she was late for school because she slept in from last night's activities, you wouldn't believe me." The rumour-mongers ceased their laughter at those words.

"What activities?" asked Jessica. Pearl grinned.

"I'm not supposed to tell," she said, withholding her 'information'.

"Tell us!" Justine ordered.

"Well…" She paused for effect. "She was quite busy yesterday. Let's just say she wasn't alone when she slept last night." The girls' eyes widened as their jaws hit the floor.

"You mean…" Angela stuttered.

"She slept…" Diana stammered.

"With a guy?!" Jessica shrieked.

"You didn't really think she was still a virgin, did you?" Pearl asked. They all nodded. "Guess again. And not just any guy. Why do you think _Gohan_ is always late for school too?" The gossipers fell over, stunned beyond belief.

"Gohan and Videl?!" Jessica yelped. "I don't believe it!"

"How else do you think I got this info?" Pearl asked innocently. "He was bragging about it to some of the guys this morning." Pearl looked around suspiciously. "But whatever happens, you didn't hear this from me." With that, she trotted off, feeling satisfied that they had bought some of her BS.

*~*~*~*

"Hey, G-chan!" Videl called from down the hall. "Wait up!" Gohan stood for a moment as Videl caught up. "How's it going?"

"Pretty bad," he grumbled. "I haven't been sleeping well lately."

"That GGS club still bugging ya?" Videl smiled. "Anything I can do to help?" Gohan suddenly brightened upon remembering the suggestion Dende had given him.

"Actually there is something!" he replied. "See, Dende recommended that I pretend to have a girlfriend to scare away those freak girls. He also said pick a girl who is extremely powerful and everyone knows it." He stared at her, trying to hint at what he was really saying. Videl nodded, understanding completely.

"So what you're saying is that you want me to that girl." She smiled slyly. "I'd be honoured," she joked. Gohan released the breath he had been holding.

"Really? You're not just messing with me?"

"No, why would I be? I'd love to be the one who beats up your admirers! They've been pissing me off lately. And besides, this'll be a great way to get rid of my stalkers too." Videl latched her arm onto him. "And starting now, you're my bitch." Gohan let out a chuckle. They walked down the hall to their next class, when Videl began to notice people staring. Mostly girls glaring at her and guys glaring at Gohan. 

"Psst…" She nudged Gohan in the ribs. "I think it's starting to work. Look how many people are getting jealous!" Gohan looked at them cautiously.

"Uh…Videl, I don't think they're looking at us out of jealousy." Then, out of the blue, a girl stood in their path.

"You, Videl," the girl began. "Are in violation of code #327 of the rules and regulations of the GGS club: Thou shalt not touch the blessed Gohan in any inappropriate manner. Now cease and desist this relationship you are in." Videl stared daggers at her.

"Screw you! And who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" she demanded.

"I am the president of the GGS club, Lindsay Walken. As the president, it's my duty to ensure that Gohan remains untouched and pure for as long as possible. You've broken that vow! Now remove yourself from his sight."

"Hey, knock it off!" Gohan yelled. "She's not in any violation. Besides, who are you to judge?"

"I told you, I'm the president-" Lindsay began.

"Yeah ya, we heard ya the first time!" Videl growled. "What the hell do you mean I've broken your stupid vow?" By this time, a crowd was beginning to form around the three.

"You robbed the Golden Fighter of his purity and innocence!" Lindsay accused, ignoring the circle of people around her. 

"What purity?!" Gohan demanded. Lindsay gave Videl a cold stare.

"His virginity," she hissed. The two stood in silence, completely stunned.

"My…virginity?" Gohan repeated. Lindsay nodded.

"I've heard a rumour going around that you two have been together, not once, not twice, but many times. The rumour had started when an anonymous person overheard a conversation this morning between you and a few other guys, talking about last night. About how you and Videl were together." Gohan nearly choked while Videl still said nothing, though she had long since released his arm. "Fess up, slut! You were with him last night!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Gohan shouted. "I wasn't with anyone! I would never sleep with someone before marriage! Are you crazy?"

"Gohan, is this true?" Videl asked him quietly. "Did you tell a bunch of guys we were together?"

"No! Why would I do a stupid thing like that?!"

"He's lying!" shouted someone at random.

"I have three witnesses who say you did say those things!" Lindsay indicted. Gohan ignored her accusations and turned to Videl, who had her head turned away from him.

"Listen, Videl," he pleaded. "I would never say that. I respect our friendship for what it is. Why would I want to jeopardize it?" Videl faced him, tears brimming her eyes.

"Oh I don't know," she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Maybe you wanted to boost your already high celebrity status! Or maybe you simply hate the fact that my popularity rivals yours!" Gohan was stunned. How could she make such claims? Didn't she know him well enough by now? But then again, this was Videl he was talking about. Leave it to her to jump to conclusions, ignoring the facts.

"Videl, what is wrong with you?! I would never do this!" he whispered. "You of all people should know that I never asked for any of this popularity. I don't even like half the people that talk to me in the halls." He attempted to take her hand, but she roughly yanked it out of his grasp. He sighed frustrated, not in the mood to deal with this situation so early in the morning. "This is just typical!" he growled. "You never believe a word I ever say! Even though I've never lied to you before!"

"Never lied?" Videl yelled, trying to confirm his words. "You have lied to me! The whole Saiyaman thing was a lie! You lied to me about the Gold Fighter, about your life, about what really happened 7 years ago! You even lied about your father! How do I know you're not lying now?!"

"You're being ridiculous! Absolutely insane! What would you do if you knew family secrets would label you a freak? You never had to deal with it, being Daddy's little girl and all!"

"I get it now," she snarled, tears threatening to spill. "You asked me to be your 'pretend' girlfriend so when people want to verify your story, they'll get proof from little tramp herself, claiming to be your girlfriend." She shook her head slowly. "No…no, I won't let you get away with this!"

"I told you," Lindsay said rudely. "Step away from Gohan before I remove you myself." Videl whirled around and slapped Lindsay across the face, in front of the now huge crowd. She didn't wait for a reaction. She simply ran.

"Videl! Wait!" Gohan called after her. He tried to go after her, but was held back. "Let me go, you son of a-" He paused when he saw the person. "Sharpner?"

"Back off and cool down, Gohan," he warned. "Let Erasa handle this problem. She's got some evidence that's gonna clear your good name." Sharpner smiled. "Don't worry. Videl tends to over react a lot."

*~*~*~*

Videl sat on the roof of the building, crying.

"How could he…?" she whimpered. "Why…? I thought we were friends…"

"Videl?" The distressed teen spun around, quickly wiping her tears away.

"What do you want, Erasa?" she tried to demand, but it sounded more like a weak plea. Erasa looked her over, pity and sympathy for her friend clearly written all over her face. She took a seat beside Videl.

"I…saw what happened," Erasa began slowly, making sure she didn't catch Videl off guard. "You're steamed at Gohan, huh?" Videl roughly covered her face.

"Don't talk to me about him," said her muffled voice. Erasa rubbed her back gently.

"I know something that might make you feel better," she offered. "You're good at puzzles, right?" She heard a soft yes. "Well let's play 'problem solving'. I'll give you one clue and you figure the rest out. Ready?" Videl replied yes once again. "Okay." Erasa took a deep breath. "Gohan was asleep all first period." She waited for Videl to do the math. Seconds later, Videl's head shot up.

"He was?!" she yelled. She jumped to her feet and ran to the door. "Thanks, Erasa!"

"Any time!" Erasa shouted back, grinning ear to ear.

Videl was down the stairs is two seconds flat and back to the hall where she had left Gohan. It was long since empty now, save Gohan. He was still there, sitting against his locker, moping. Videl didn't hesitate as she dropped to the ground next to him and flung her arms around his neck. He was caught by surprise, but quickly recovered when he recognized her.

"I'm sorry, Gohan," she moaned into his shirt. "I'm so, so very sorry! Please forgive me!" Gohan cautiously returned to hug.

"I'm the one who should apologize," he whispered. "I was such a jerk. I guess I was a bit grumpy lately from lack of sleep." He scratched his head wanting to ask a question he was just dying to know. "Um…Videl, if you don't mind my asking, how did you suddenly figure out that I'm telling the truth?" Videl smirked.

"Erasa told me…she gave me an alibi to explain where you were this morning," Videl clarified. "She said you were asleep all first period, so you could have never told anyone…what the rumours said. " Gohan sighed.

"Thank god that's over," he muttered. "I really thought I had lost you."

"You can't get rid of me that easily," Videl laughed.

*~*~*~*

"Good job, girls!" Doom cheered, celebrating their accomplishments. They were at their house, enjoying their handiwork. "Phase two is complete! She now has arousing suspicions about him. Now we have to further those suspicions along." She raised her glass of champagne to her sisters. "Peril, nice job with the rumour starting. Crisis, good job with bringing Erasa into the scene so she could 'aid' the boy when he needed it."

"What did you do, big sister?" Crisis asked sarcastically.

"What do you mean 'What did you do?' I'm the brains of this outfit. You're the brawns, and Peril's the popular electronics wizard. When the time comes, I pull off my share of the work. So sit back and enjoy Earth's sunsets…while they last."

*~*~*~*

"So now you understand, Kaioshin?" Sukoshin asked politely.

"Absolutely," Kaioshin replied. "Should we contact the Earth's Special forces?"

"Yes, unless I am able to stop this mess in time. I've already dispatched my dream minions. They'll set subliminal messages in their subconscious to warn them of the rising evil. If they don't figure it out, then contact Dende-sama."

"Understood." He turned to the two crystal balls set before them. "I just don't understand why we can't simply go to Earth and destroy the temples. It would save us a good deal of trouble."

"We can't," Sukoshin answered. "Even though the Grand Sister is much more powerful than anything in the entire universe, her sisters' combined power equal almost that. We wouldn't stand a chance and neither would the warriors of Earth. We must do this quietly." She closed her eyes. "This is all my fault. I should have destroyed the lion statue while I had the chance. But I was just so weak and tired. I never knew my slumber would last 10 millenniums. But I have a chance to redeem myself and put an end to this horror once and for all."

*~*~*~*


	6. Chapter 6

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 6

"Will you catch me if I fall?" Gohan blinked as he tried to get a view of his surroundings. 'This dream again?' "Will you?" Videl asked again. Gohan looked up.

"Uh…yeah, sure."

"Please don't let me die," she whispered. Gohan gave a puzzled look when the dream didn't end. Suddenly, Videl dropped out of the sky and crashed into the ground.

"Videl!" he yelled, not understanding why he could move when she fell. He finally was able to move once more and rushed to her aid. She was lying on her back, seeming to be unharmed.

"You let me fall," she wept. "You let me die." Gohan's eyes widened. "I warned you Gohan. Now with me and my pure soul, we die and the Earth dies with it." She unexpectedly snatched the front of his shirt. "You let me die! Do you know what this means?!" Gohan shook his head no. "It means they won. It means she comes into the picture. She'll kill them. She'll kill everyone, Gohan! Don't you understand?! She has a master, one more powerful than her!"

"Who has a master? Who is she?" Gohan asked rapidly.

"Her! Her, Gohan!! Don't you see?! She's gonna kill you! She hates you! She thinks she's pure evil, but you need to tell her otherwise! I'm still there, but she's trying to silence me!"

"Who?!"

"Her…" Videl pointed behind Gohan. He looked around and saw a woman who looked like Videl, except…darker…different.

"I'm the one you should be worried about," she said menacingly. "I can bring about this planet's Apocalypse. It's already here, just waiting for me to unlock her." Gohan turned back to Videl, but she was missing. He was no longer by her side. He was floating just beyond Earth's skies. Chikyuu was burning. It was engulfed in red flames.

"Who are you?" Gohan asked the mysterious woman. She grinned.

"The epitome of evil itself, except with a D," the woman replied. "I'm the bearer. The carrier." She looked towards Earth. "Beautiful isn't it?" She turned back to him. "Armageddon is a place. And it was brought to Earth. Apocalypse was always here. Waiting, and gazing east."

"Gohan!" Gohan spun around, facing Videl once more. "Don't you dare kill me! Don't you dare, or that," She pointed to the burning planet. "is the Earth's fate. Embrace my friendship, secure it, and cherish it, for these are the last days of it."

Gohan woke up feeling distressed and disturbed. He didn't understand. The dream held such a powerful emotion over him, telling him not to dismiss it or disregarded it. Something told him it held some importance. Some sort of inner meaning. He couldn't explain it, but didn't have time to elaborate either as he prepared for school.

*~*~*~*

"You're having a party?" Erasa asked excitedly. "Cool!" Dune, Christy, and Pearl just announced that they were having a house party on the weekend. "What time? Where? Who's coming?"

"Starts at 6:00, ends whenever, 450 Canvey Cr. And everyone in the 12th grade is invited," Christy answered all in one breath.

"Cool!!" Erasa squealed.

"Aren't you worried your house will get messed up?" Videl asked.

"Not really," Pearl responded. "After all, the week after the party is the last week of school before March Break, so we'll have plenty of time to clean up."

"Class, please prepare for today's lesson by sitting in your seats," Ms. Brady declared as student began to take their seats. "Now today, we'll be looking at the Cell Games history-"

"Boring!" Dune snorted from the back. Ms. Brady, the usually mild-tempered woman, glared at Dune from the front.

"Excuse me, Dune," she barked. "But do you have a problem with our history lesson?"

"Well as a matter of fact," Dune remarked. "I do have a problem. See, you people have been getting it all wrong! Mr. Satan didn't beat Cell!" She took a quick glance at Gohan to see his reaction. Seeing him squirm uncomfortably nearly made her burst out laughing. "You see, Ms. Brady, he cheated. We all saw the broadcast. He was knocked out of the ring, thus disqualifying him. There was no he could have won without cheating!" Ms. Brady's glare softened slightly.

"Well you do hold a valid point. But remember that Cell did destroy the ring, disabling the rules he set down. And besides, if the fate of the world rests on your shoulders, you'd break a few rules too to ensure Earth's survival." Dune smirked.

"I'm sure."

*~*~*~*

"She's a threat! She knows something!!" Gohan came storming into the living room of Capsule Corp. followed closely by Vegeta.

"Alright!" Vegeta yelled. "Calm down, brat! Explain what happened."

"She knows I beat Cell!" Gohan shouted. "In the middle of history class, while we're about to talk about the Cell Games, she brings up how Mr. Satan wasn't the one who beat Cell and I could have sworn she was staring at me! It's like she knows which strings to pull, which buttons to push to make me nervous! She's a menace!"

"Will you shut up!" Vegeta demanded. "I came up with some information that might be useful. It's turns out that your little friends aren't from Earth." Gohan perked up.

"Are you sure?"

"What the hell do you mean am I sure?! Of course I'm sure! There aren't any records of them or their family name anywhere on Earth except in the school records of Orange Star High. That's means they're impostors."

"That's it!" Gohan cheered. "I'll just confront them and blow their cover!"

"Not so fast, Lightning!" Vegeta barked. "You can't barge in on them! You don't know anything about them! For all you know, they could be far stronger than even Buu. You could be jeopardizing your life and everyone on this planet while you're at it. We have to take things slowly. Let them make the first move. In the mean time, just hold off. I'm trying to think!" There was silence for a few minutes. Then Gohan snapped alert.

"Wait, she's having a party on the weekend. I'll go investigate, find out all I can and report back to you."

"You sound like a true saiya-jin solider. Stop it."

*~*~*~*

It was finally Saturday and people, or rather teens, everywhere were preparing for the high anticipated party being held at the Armagens'. At least, everyone but Gohan was getting ready. He had yet to even get permission.

"Please mom!" Gohan wailed. "Pleeeeaaaasssseeee!!!"

"No, Gohan!" Chi-chi snapped. "Absolutely not! Who knows what will be at this party! Guns, drugs, sex, beer! Heaven forbid if you get mixed up with the wrong crowd."

"But mom!" Gohan pleaded.

"No 'buts'. I said no, young man. Isn't seeing your little friends at school enough?"

"You're the one who was encouraging me to make friends in the first place! This party is the perfect way!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself, Son Gohan! NO!" Gohan gave her the irresistible, patented Son puppy look. Unfortunately for him, combined with Goten and Goku's overuse of it, Chi-chi had become immune to it. "Don't you dare give me that look! It won't work."

"Darn!"

"Oh c'mon, Chi," Goku added. "It's just a party. You raised Gohan to be bright enough, so he won't get involved with that kind of stuff." Hopefully that would butter her up. Complement her child-raising skills, and she'd give in to anything.

"You stay out of this!" Chi-chi growled at her husband. Oh well, so much for that strategy. 

Chi-chi raised her arm, as if to strike someone with an object, but her frying pan was nowhere to be seen, so she lowered her arm. She had long since gotten rid of her favourite frying pan, so she had nothing to use against her family. Screaming and nagging always seemed to work anyway.

"But mom!" Gohan began again. "I need to go to this party for some undercover work! I need to find info on a couple of kids!" He was careful not to say 'girls' or else his mother would have run on a tangent, completely forgetting about giving him permission.

"That's even worse! I will not have you go to someone's house and snoop around." Gohan sighed sadly. He and Goku had tried every trick in the book, but Chi-chi was a fortress today, unbending and unwilling to let Gohan go. That's when Goten came to the rescue.

"I bet Gohan only wants to go because he wants to see Videl," announced the little clone of Goku proudly, following it with embarrassing kissing noises. Gohan turned a deep red, but Chi-chi found hearts in her eyes.

"That's right! That nice young woman, Videl is going to be there, isn't she?" she said dreamily. "Why didn't you say so earlier?! Now you _have_ to go! And when you get back, I want you to tell me that you proposed to her!"

"Moooommm!" Gohan whined. "We're just-"

"Call her now and tell her you want to walk her home!"

"But I don't want to-"

"CALL HER OR YOU CAN'T GO!!"

"Yes ma'am!" Gohan quickly snatched the phone up.

*~*~*~*

While getting ready for the party, Videl received a phone call.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Uh…Hey Videl, it's me, Gohan."

"Oh hey Gohan! What's up?"

"Listen, I was wondering if I could walk you home after the party's done." Videl blushed and was thankful he couldn't see her right now.

"How come?" she asked cautiously, so not to sound rude.

"Um…two reasons." Videl heard a little fumbling in the background, as if Gohan was getting pushed around. "Make that one reason." Videl stifled a giggle, realizing it was Chi-chi in the background. "It's because…" He paused, receiving more instructions from a third party. "I love you. Hey! Wait a minute!" After more fumbling, Gohan got the phone again. "Sorry, my mom's kinda bugging me…Uh, listen. I just wanted to walk you home because it's gonna be great weather tonight and I thought it's be nice."

"Sounds great. But you gotta promise," she joked.

"Okay," Gohan laughed. "I promise to walk Videl Satan home after the party. Happy?"

"Always. What time are you getting to the party?"

"Around 7. My mom wants me to eat first."

"Okay and we'll leave at around…how does 1am sound?"

"Uh…kinda late," he said reluctantly. He quickly added, "But I'll see what I can do! Kay?"

"Sure, great!" Videl grinned. "See ya then!"

"Later!" She hung up the phone and continued to prepare when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called, brushing her short hair. Mr. Satan walked in and noticed her actually looking presentable.

"Hey, who was on the phone?" he asked.

"Gohan."

"Oh, that skinny kid."

"Dad, you and me both know he's not skinny. In fact, I think he's getting a bit podgy." Hercule chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just kidding. Anyways, what are you getting ready for?"

"The Armagens are having a house-warming party."

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"I dunno. Probably an involuntary teen thing." She stood and walked past him, giving a quick kiss on his cheek. "Later daddy! I'll be home at around 1am. That okay?"

"Yeah, sure, just be careful. And tell that Gohan kid I said hi."

"Okay." Hercule watched his only daughter walk out the door and down the stairs.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" he muttered to himself. He shrugged it off and went to find Mr. Buu so he could train a bit.

*~*~*~*

"Time to get this party started!" Music began to blare as snacks were distributed to random tables and people. This party had everything a teen could think of: beer, snacks, great music, loads of friends, and the most important thing, a pool.

"Let's go swimming!" Erasa exclaimed. Most people in the pool hadn't even brought a swim suit. They were fully clothed, but in the pool anyways and completely drenched. Someone had even ridden their bike off the roof into the pool. There was also a mini skater park around the side of the house.

"This house is awesome!" Angela remarked coolly to Christy and Pearl. "It has everything! Even an arcade in the rec. room! And the best part is it's far away from other houses, so we won't bug anyone."

"Too bad," Derek moped. Down in the rec. room, Gohan was kicking Sharpner's ass in Smash Brothers, totally forgetting that he was supposed to be snooping around, trying to find dirt on the Armagen sisters.

"Yes!" Gohan yelled. "Pikachu just knocked you the hell out! WOO!!"

"Yes, woo indeed," Sharpner muttered. He started to get up. "I'm gonna get a Vanilla Coke. You want something?"

"Word, I'z be thirsty and shit," Gohan laughed. [1]

"Riiiiiiggggghhhhhttttttt….." Sharpner said slowly as he walked to the kitchen. He came back with two Vanilla cokes. "How the hell do you keep beating me?"

"All in the wrists, buddy," Gohan snickered. "Besides, you keep picking that crappy little Jigglypuff thing. Pick someone like Link or Kirby."

"Okay, buddy," Sharpner said sarcastically. "Can't be as bad as your brother. Man, how many times has he killed that princess in Ico? He's supposed to _save_ her!"

"She's annoying!" Gohan laughed. "She doesn't speak our language and she runs around, playing with birds and one time, she actually ran right up to those shadow dudes." Then Gohan came up with an idea. "Hey, why don't we go to Blockbusters and piss off some people while renting Ico? I've got my membership card." Sharpner considered it.

"Why not? Let's get Videl and Erasa. That way we'll have an audience." 

"Good thinking." The two got up and went outside to the pool only to find Erasa and Videl completely soaked. The girls smiled sheepishly while Videl crossed her arms.

"Y'know," Videl began. "If I had known this place had a pool I would have never worn white." She slowly moved one arm to show that in fact, her white shirt was utterly drenched and was a bit…exposing. The guys' eyes nearly popped out.

"You…" Gohan stuttered. "You…your…you…shirt…" Promptly, he fell backwards into the pool.

"Oh for Kami's sake!" yelled Sharpner. "With reactions like that, you're never gonna get laid!"

*~*~*~*

After Gohan recovered rather quickly, and Videl managed to dry off her shirt, the four of them went to Blockbusters, which was just down the road.

"Okay, here's the plan," Sharpner said in a military sergeant voice. "Me and Gohan will stand outside and play Jay and Silent Bob. You, girls, will go in and retrieve the game Ico. I'm gonna prove to Gohan that you can get through the game without killing the princess."

"Yeah right," Gohan snorted. "But I get to be Jay!"

"Fine," Sharpner said, rolling his eyes. "Ready? Break!" Videl and Erasa rushed inside while Gohan and Sharpner leaned against the glass window.

"Noise, noise, noise! Smoking weed, smoking weed, doing coke, drinking beers!" Gohan rapped, just like in the movie. "Drinking beer, beers, beers! Rolling phatties, smoking blunts. Who smokes the blunts? We smoke the blunts! Rolling blunts and smoking-"

"Hey can I get a nickel back?" Sharpner rehearsed his lines.

"15 bucks, little man, put that shit, in my hand! If the money doesn't show, then you owe me, owe me, oh! My jungle love! Owi owi o! I think I wanna know ya, know ya!" [2] Just as they finished, Videl and Erasa had returned with the game.

"Mission accomplished," Erasa announced, handing the game to Sharpner. "And the best part is you guys distracted the clerk, so he punched in the wrong button and gave us a discount price."

"Good job, solider," he commended. "There will be a dog biscuit in your bowl today."

"Very funny, but you can keep the dog biscuit." The four began laughing. 

*~*~*~*

As they were walking home, Sharpner and Erasa walked up ahead while Videl evaded Gohan's tickling tactics. Once he had caught her, he mercilessly tickled her until she could barely breath.

"Stop!' she cried in between giggles. "Ack! You're so evil!"

"No I'm not," Gohan said smugly. "There's no such thing as evil."

"Oh really?" Videl raised an eyebrow. "Mind explaining that little out-burst?"

"Well, it's really simple. Anyone I've ever fought has ki."

"Okay. So what does-"

"I'm getting to that. Each time, either they're redeemable, or they try acting innocent to avoid their demise. Now normally, if they were completely evil, they wouldn't be redeemable, nor would they know how it's like to behave good. Plus, to be completely evil is an imbalance in the ying yang."

"The what?"

"Y'know, ying yang. That's your balance of good and evil. One can't be complete without the other, otherwise you're technically dead, or have no ki. That's where I get the ki thing."

"Interesting theory, but it made no sense whatsoever."

"Lemmie try it this way. My dad, for example, has an abundant amount of ying, which is good, I believe. But somewhere inside him, his Kakorrot side, there's yang, the evil. But that part stays dormant in some people."

"Okay."

"So no living creature has pure ying or yang. It's impossible. That imbalance is either caused by acts of Kaioshin, or they have no life energy that ying yang is based on."

"Did you make that up just now?"

"Videl, you're not taking me seriously."

"No, actually, I was just kidding. You have a very valid point. Complete evil can't really exist. Ki is based on that balance of good and evil. So without one, there is no ki, am I right?"

"Exactly!"

"Cool! That would explain why your little android buddies in the other timeline did things without a conscious. Technically, they can do whatever they want and have no regret or guilt. They can be all good or all evil if they wanted."

"Well, I hate to admit it, but they aren't really alive anymore. They died a long time ago when Gero made them androids in the first place. And since they're dead, they have no ki, no ying yang."

"Makes perfect sense in a way." Videl shoved Gohan into some bushes. "That's payback for tickling me!" She squeaked when he jumped out and started chasing her.

"Hey, will you two love birds pick up the pace?" Sharpner asked. "We wanna get back before the party is over." Gohan and Videl blushed, but ran up ahead.

*~*~*~*

They returned to the party and Gohan popped Ico into the Playstation. Sharpner pulled up a seat and watched as Gohan struggled with first Shadow demon.

"The burning stick!" Gohan yelled at the screen. "Pick it up! Oh my god! Why is he doing this to me!" Once he got the character Ico to pick up the stick, he began growling. "Go over there!" he yelled at the girl on screen. "There! Away from the shadow hole! Are you an idiot or something?! Oh Kami!" After playing for nearly half an hour, Sharpner began to really get into the game. "Over here!" Gohan yelled at the screen

"You've got to try pushing," Sharpner commented. "Get around the other side!"

"Damn her! She keeps jumping off the box."

"Lemmie try!" Sharpner suggested.

"NO!!" Gohan barked.

"Gohan!" Pearl called from the kitchen. "Come here!" Gohan got up and went over to where Pearl was. "Hey, you mom just called. She wants you to go home right now. She sounded pissed."

"My mom?" Gohan said, paling. "Oh crap! I knew her permission to stay till 1 in the morning was too good to be true!" Pearl shrugged sympathetically. "Wait! I was supposed to walk Videl home. I can't just leave her alone without telling her."

"She's already gone," Pearl replied. "She said she got a ride from that…Tyler guy."

"Tyler? Oh…that Tyler…basketball Tyler." Gohan looked back to the rec. room. "Are you sure she's gone? I mean, why wouldn't she at least tell me first?"

"I asked her if she knew she was taking off without you, but she said you'd understand or something. Anyways, you better get home quick! If I had a mom like yours, I'd be living in fear of her. Hurry man!" Gohan nodded and ran to the front door, slipping on his shoes. "Hey, want me to walk with you?" Gohan smiled, but shook her head no.

"It's really far!" he explained. "I'd have to fly at top speed." [3]

"Don't worry," Pearl said with a sweet smile. "I can keep up." Gohan gave her a puzzled look.

"But I'd be flying!" he insisted again. Pearl gave a sly grin as she began to levitate.

"As I was saying, I can keep up." She winked. Gohan just stared.

"…Guh…sure…"

*~*~*~*

He had started out slow, in case she was a slow flyer, but she kept up, just like she said would. 

So he picked up the speed. 

She maintained. 

He began flying at regular speeds. 

She matched and flew a bit faster. 

Soon he found himself racing her. When they arrived at his house, they were both laughing.

"You really are fast," Gohan complemented. "Where'd you learn to fly so fast? In fact, where'd you learn to fly at all?" Pearl gave a mischievous smirk.

"My secret," she purred. Her voice sent weird chills down Gohan's spine. 'Time for the spell,' she thought. She placed her hands at both sides of Gohan's head and before he knew what was happening, she began chanting, "O_nnazuki kisu no eimin._" [4] Suddenly, Gohan's eyes went dull and blank. "That's right, Gohan, just relax." He began leaning forward until their lips were barely touching. She slowly removed her hands from his head and snapped her fingers, breaking the trance. 

He immediately became aware of his surroundings…and where his face was. Before he could react, Pearl roughly shoved him away from her.

"You hentai!" she screamed. "How could you?! Trying to take advantage of me!"

"What?" Gohan asked, dazed and confused. "I…I didn't mean to do anything…I swear!"

"You're drunk!" Pearl scolded. "I can smell the alcohol in your breath!"

"Pearl, wait!" He reached out, but she quickly backed away.

"Don't touch me! How could you? I'm only 15! You disgusting…I can't even look at you!" She hastily shot into the sky and flew as fast as she could away.

"Wait!" Gohan shout. "Pearl!" He fell to the ground, not knowing what to do. "What now?"

*~*~*~*

A sudden shockwave sent Sukoshin out of her trance.

"We're too late!" she shouted. Kaioshin looked at her, stunned.

"What?" he said a little more calmly.

"Peril got to him. She's poisoned his mind," Sukoshin explained. "Now he thinks he's the bad guy in this whole situation. If Peril goes back to the party and tells everyone what happened, Videl will be lost forever." She looked down at her hands. "It's too late because I'm still much to weak to do anything to help." She looked at Kaioshin. "Contact Dende."

*~*~*~*

"Gohan, what are you doing home so early?" Chi-chi asked. Gohan's head shot up. "I thought you were going to be at the party until 1. Did you get a chance to walk Videl home? On no! There wasn't anything wrong with her, was there?"

"Wait!" he yelled, abruptly cutting off his mother. "What am I doing home?" he enquired. "You called and told me to come home!" Chi-chi looked at him oddly.

"Why would I do that? I don't even have the number of the place you were at!" Gohan paused, realizing…he had been set up.

*~*~*~*

Videl looked around through crowds and rooms, trying to find Gohan. She had been looking for him since about half an hour after they had gotten back from Blockbusters. It was nearing 1am, and she wanted to find him so they could leave. When she walked into the rec. room, she found Christy playing Ico with Sharpner.

"Hey guys?" Videl questioned. "Have you seen Gohan?"

"Gohan?" Christy answered. "Nope, haven't seen him since he left the party with Pearl." Videl stood with her mouth open slightly.

"He…left with her?"

"Yep, said something about macking. I don't know what he was blabbering about, because he was a bit drunk."

"Gohan was drunk?!" Videl demanded. "He doesn't even drink!"

"Well apparently you don't know him well enough. I told him you'd be looking for him, but he's like, 'She can find her own way home. She can fly.' And then he was gone." Videl shook her head slowly.

"No…that couldn't have been him." Just as the words left her mouth, Pearl came running into the room, looking scared, frantic, and damn near tears.

"I can't believe that jerk!" she shrieked. "Christy! Do you know what Gohan tried?!" Christy shook her head. "He tried to kiss me!" Videl gasped. "We got to his house and he tried to force himself on me! He was drunker than hell and he…he just…" Pearl couldn't finish her sentence as Dune walked in the room and hugged her younger sister. 

"Shh…it's okay, Pearl…" she whispered soothingly to her sister. Erasa walked in quietly, only catching bits of the conversation, while Sharpner shook his head in disbelief. Both teens knew something else was up. Videl couldn't believe her ears. Gohan didn't seem like the type to do something like that. But then again, he didn't seem like the type that would spread rumours about sleeping with his best friend. What if that was true too? 

"Tell me what happened," Dune whispered, but loud enough so some surrounding people could hear. Pearl sniffed a few times before continuing.

"He was playing Ico, and then he came up to me and asked if I wanted to go with him to his house." Sharpner was about to interrupt, but was 'accidentally' elbowed by Christy. "And I asked why and what about Videl. But he didn't care! And next thing I knew, we were at his house and he…grabbed my arms and tried to kiss me. And naturally, I screamed at him. And I ran." Videl certainly couldn't understand how Gohan of all people would do something like that. 

It just wasn't…him. 

Since the moment she had met him, she knew he was different. He wasn't like other guys she knew. 

'But people change,' said a little nagging voice in the back of her mind. 'Gohan's just one of them.'

'No!' her sensibly side retorted. 'He would never do that! He never had a single drink tonight! He's not one to attempt something like that!'

'Precisely how well do you know him?' asked that nagging voice.

'…'

'Exactly. Remember that fight you had with him in the halls? Remember bringing up how many times he's lied to you? He might walk into school Monday and tell you he didn't do anything, but in truth, he'll most likely be lying. Don't fall for his lies again. And what about his broken promise? Do you think he took the time to consider your feeling before he left? No! If he had, he would have never left in the first place!' 

Videl couldn't deny what that voice was saying. It was all true. Gohan had lied a lot to her, and he did break his promise to walk her home. She knew it seemed childish, but it still hurt, nonetheless. And she also remembered thinking that one of these days, he would pick a girl. She just didn't know he'd actually try forcing himself on that girl.

Looking at Pearl, in tears, was enough proof to say she couldn't trust him anymore. What if that had been Videl? After all, she was the one that was supposed to have walked with Gohan in the first place. She felt her breathing get ragged as all these facts came into place.

She couldn't handle it and ran from the room, ran from the party, ran from the whole house. She needed to think.

She needed to know whether this friendship with Gohan was really worth it.

*~*~*~*

[1] That entire skit between Gohan and Sharpner is ripping off a comic from Penny Arcade. Check out their web page at www.penny-arcade.com Lots of laughs!

[2] Now this skit was from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. If you haven't seen that movie yet…what the hell are you waiting for?! Go see it!

[3] Everyone knows Gohan can fly, so he talks about it casually.

[4] O_nnazuki kisu no eimin:_ translates to "Lustful kiss of death." I could be wrong again.


	7. Chapter 7

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 7

(Dedicated to Nameless Blank for sending in such a pretty picture of Dark Videl! If you wanna see it, go to my profile, then to my web page and it's under fan art! Thanks Nameless Blank!! *Huggles*)

Many teens that Saturday night went home, disappointed that the party had ended so early. But they went nearly as annoyed as they were at Gohan, who was the cause of their abrupt end of fun. Many went home saying 'I can't believe that jerk!', 'What a pervert!', and 'I knew he was bad from the start'. Erasa and Sharpner were the only two not grumbling about Gohan. In fact, they defended him, trying to convince people that he wasn't the type to pull a stunt like that. He was just too much of a coward when it came to girls. 

No one listened.

If that wasn't bad enough, Videl had burst through her front door that night in tears, jealous, anger, and emotional pain plaguing her mind. When Mr. Satan asked what was wrong, she simply forced her way past him and to her room. She had made her decision concerning Gohan, and she'd tell him so Monday morning when she saw him.

*~*~*~*

"You let me fall," Videl wept. "You let me die." Gohan looked around. He was dreaming again. He couldn't make it stop. "I warned you before to cherish our friendship. Now it is no more." He couldn't make it stop! "You've lost me." Why won't it stop?! He looked into her eyes. They were fading. "I'll always remember you. I'll always remember our conversations. We always had the best ones." Her smile faded as well. Why couldn't he stop it? Why couldn't he stop the dream from going the way it was? "Will you kiss me one last time?" She tried to smile once more. "Maybe I'll remember more." Gohan nodded, not understanding why he felt so numb inside. He leaned down and was about to gently kiss her when he heard a shriek behind him. He spun around to see where the scream came from, but everything faded to darkness and he awoke.

Lying up in bed, he rubbed his eyes clear. The dream was different this time. It was getting stranger. He couldn't sleep now. It was Sunday night and he had school tomorrow, so he really needed the sleep. He checked his clock and groaned. Scratch that. It was Monday morning and he had to get ready for school in 2 hours. He groaned again and flipped himself off his bed and onto the floor. 

After getting ready, he ate breakfast and teased Goten about not being able to beat Ico.

"Gohan," Chi-chi called from the laundry room. "Gohan! Come here." Gohan dragged himself to the laundry room. "Hun, you should take better care of your things!" She handed him a senzu bean. "I found that in your pants pocket."

"Thanks, mom," Gohan gratefully said. "I'll put it in Saiyaman costume pocket."

"Good. Now get ready for school."

*~*~*~*

'Great. So what am I going to say to her? She's gonna kill me. No doubt about that. She'll humiliate me in public and tell me off. She'll never forgive me.' Gohan landed on the roof of the school, moping about the events of Saturday. As he walked through the halls, just as he feared would happen, everyone was staring or glaring at him. He tried to ignore all the evil stares he was receiving and rushed into first period class. What was even stranger than this and the dream he had put together was the fact that Saturday and Sunday night, the GGS club was no where to be found at his house. 

Taking his seat, he realized he was actually early today. The class was nearly empty, save a few kids studying. 'At least they're not glaring at me like everyone else.' Moments later, the Armagen sisters walked in, followed closely by Videl, Sharpner and Erasa. He decided it wasn't a good idea to confront Pearl yet. The group stood at the back, talking quietly. He shifted nervously, wondering what they were talking about.

'Wait! I'm a saiya-jin. I can hear better than humans.' He moved slightly closer so he could pick up their conversation without being noticed. Even though he was closer, he only caught bits and pieces, but he did hear his name mentioned more than once. He felt that gnawing feeling the pit of his stomach once again and slumped back into his chair. 'It's official. They hate me and my social life is ruined.' He still didn't understand how it had happened. One minute he was asking her about her flying skills, the next, his face was inches away from hers. He didn't even remember moving.

The bell rang at 8:00, like usual, and everyone got in their seats as Ms. Brady walked in.

"Okay, class," she began her lesson. "We'll be doing a quick unit on Japanese Politics just before the March Break. Please take out your text books and turn to page…" Gohan tuned her out and quietly slammed his head on his desk. He was brought out of his head-slamming when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up to see Erasa looking at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly.

"Hurting myself," he replied simply. "You?" Erasa smiled weakly.

"Is…is it true what they're saying?" she timidly asked. "Y'know…the whole Pearl thing?" Gohan's shoulders drooped as did his spirit.

"I…don't know…" he answered sadly.

"Why…?"

"I'm not sure…it just happened."

"Not Pearl. Videl." Gohan stared, confused.

"Videl?"

"Yeah…you left her in the middle of the party." This confused him further.

"I was told she left before I did."

"Gohan, Erasa!" Ms. Brady called from the front. "Please stop talking."

"Sorry!" they said in unison.

Now Gohan was confused. So Videl was still at the party. Pearl told him otherwise. Of course, she also lied about his mom calling. What if she was the one who tried to kiss him, but made it look like he was at fault? He needed to be sure if that was truly her plan.

*~*~*~*

Lunch time came around and instead of going to the usual bleachers, Gohan went to the tree where the Armagen sisters were sitting. Upon seeing him coming, Dune stood in his path.

"Stay away from my sister, you sick bastard!" she ordered.

"Pearl!" Gohan yelled, ignoring Dune's threat. "You lied to me twice Saturday night." Pearl pulled Dune back and walked up to Gohan.

"Yeah?" she sneered. "Is that so?"

"Yeah. My mom didn't call and Videl didn't leave the party before me."

"So what are you gonna do about it, Saiyaman?" She let out a scoff. "Nothing! You know why? It's too late! She hates you! Just try talking to her. Who's she gonna believe? Me, the victim in this whole ordeal, or you, a sleazy pervert trying to get laid?" Gohan clenched his fist in rage, knowing Pearl was talking about Videl.

"You won't get away with this!" he yelled. 

"I already have! I have witnesses that say you forced yourself on me!"

"Who?"

"The ever faithful GGS club. They've been surrounding your house for quite some time, haven't they?" Gohan blinked. "Yes, they have. And they saw what happened."

"I'll just have a chat with Dende. He'll clear this up."

"Don't be absurd!" Pearl laughed. "God can't help you either because he saw what everyone else saw." Gohan was beginning to get blinded by rage and couldn't take anymore of this, so he left the smug sisters.

Returning to bleachers, he found Erasa, Videl, and Sharpner eating lunch without him.

"Hey guys!" he called, getting their attention. "I need to talk to you." Videl looked at him with fury and promptly got up to leave. "Wait Videl!" She stormed off anyway, but Gohan wasn't about to let her leave when he was so close to the truth of what happened Saturday. He grasped her arm gently. "Videl, please, hear me out." Videl paused. 

"It's starting," Pearl whispered to Dune from under the tree. "Get ready." Dune nodded slowly and extended her hands, preparing for a spell. 

"I didn't know you were still at the party on Saturday," Gohan pleaded to Videl, who was deadly silent, her back to him. "Pearl told me you had left." When she didn't say anything, he continued. "She said I had to leave because my mother had called and demanded me to come home. So I did, and she tagged along." He paused, wondering if she was truly listening. "Look, I'm sorry! I would have never left without you if I knew…" Then, without warning, she whirled around and slapped him as hard as she could, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You bastard!" she screamed in fury and misery. "I don't care why you left! The fact of the matter is that you left anyway!! And if that's bad enough, you were DRUNK!! You left with another girl and you tried to kiss her without  her consent! What of that had been me…?" Her voice began to crack as Gohan held his cheek, confused and emotionally hurt. "I really thought…we could make something work out…but then you backstab me and you…hurt me so much…I feel like I'm dead to you!" Her words were striking painful chords in Gohan's heart. "You know what?! Keep her! I'm through with your shit! I never want to see your face again!" Videl took a deep breath. "I hate you!"

"Now!" Christy hissed to her older sister. Dune's eyes flared white as her power began to rise and she was engulfed by a white aura. She sent out a pulse of telekinetic power, one of her most powerful spells.

"_Rage unleash,_" she chanted. "_Wrath underneath, you have potential of evil beneath._" She cast the spell and waited for results.

Videl suddenly became soundless and silent as her body began to shake violently.

"Videl?" Gohan asked cautiously, attempting to forget her early words, though the pain still lingered. "Are you okay?" Videl didn't answer. Her skin was becoming deathly pale as her eyes grew dull and emotionless. Suddenly, she let out a blood-curding scream, shocking everyone in a five mile radius. She grabbed her head, as if she were in pain, and recoiled into a protective stance, still screaming.

"What happened?" Erasa cried, jumping to the scene from the bleachers.

"I don't know!" Gohan said innocently, though very concerned for Videl, who wouldn't stop crying. "She was yelling at me, then she froze and started screaming all of a sudden."

"Videl!" Erasa called, shaking her friend. "VIDEL!! Someone call the nurse!" Sharpner leapt off the bleachers and straight into the school to fetch the school nurse. "Videl! Snap out of it!"

"This is all my fault!" Gohan moped. 

"Don't beat yourself up!" Erasa soothed. "I'm sure it's something else." Way off to the side, under the lone tree, the Armagen sisters watched on, unsure weather the results were good or not.

"Is…she supposed to be screaming like that?" Pearl asked slowly. Dune shrugged.

"I'm…not sure…" she replied honestly. "This had never happened before…" They watched as three nurses came out  and rushed to Videl's aid. At the simple touch of them trying to revive her from whatever trauma she was going through, Videl flung two of the nurse into the bleachers. The third nurse backed away, frightened. Dune raised a brow. "I think it's safe to say the spell worked." Dune smirked. "We've got her now! And in good timing too! Next week on Wednesday, we'll have her standing on the Altar of Orin, resurrecting Apocolypse! This is just too perfect!"

"And what's great is none of these stupid humans have a clue what we're doing!" Christy agreed, equally happy. "They'll never know what hit 'em until it's too late."

"Unless the old Supreme Kai warns them!" Pearl added, laughing. The other two stopped and glared at her. "W…what?"

"Wrong answer!" Christy snarled, raising her fist.

"Stop it," Dune sighed. "She's right. The Supreme Kai is supposed to awaken when we find the statue. No doubt she's on to us by now. I wouldn't be surprised if she's told this planet's guardian already."

*~*~*~*

"You've gotta be kidding!" Dende exclaimed. "It's HERE?!"

"What's wrong?" Mr. Popo's asked, pausing his usually flower-watering. Piccolo, who had never seen the young god so worried, also paused in his meditation to see what was up. Dende looked a little shaken.

"I've just been contacted by the 10, 000 Earth B.C.E. Supreme Kai," he explained. "She tells me there's something important on this planet."

"She?" Mr. Popo asked, curious.

"Yes. Her name is Sukoshin. She told me that Earth is harbouring a statue that contains the essence of evil in the form of a woman named Apocolypse, the Grand Sister, she referred to her as. Unfortunately, a few followers, almost blood sisters, have come looking for her. They're called the Armageddon Sisters." Dende paused. "And she says that the statue is in the shape of a lion, apparently the most untameable animal of the 10, 000 B.C.E. era." Dende shook his head. "I fear it's the Great Sphinx of Egypt." Piccolo let out a strained groan.

"Here we go again," he muttered.

*~*~*~*

She had long fallen unconscious, probably from lack of oxygen from screaming so long. The nurses, after recovering, had taken her inside to the infirmary with the help of Gohan. They still didn't know what was wrong with her. Nurse Benson, the one who hadn't been thrown into the bleachers, speculated that Videl had simply gone into a psychological shock by unknown means. 

Gohan knew better. 

At least he thought he knew better. He was guessing it was because she had been screaming at him. He blamed himself. He currently sat by her motionless side, waiting for her to wake up. He overheard the nurses saying that if she did regain consciousness within the hour, they were going to send her to the hospital.

Gohan clasp her hand tenderly. He was beyond worried. It was the helpless feeling that he couldn't really help her that was bugging him. A knock on the door drove him out of his thoughts. He quietly opened the door and Mr. Satan walked in.

"How is she?" he whispered so not to wake her. Gohan shrugged mildly.

"They don't know what's wrong…" he replied to the older man. "She just…starting shrieking and then she collapsed." Mr. Satan down in the chair next to Videl's bed and took her hand. Gohan had to admit, when you got right down to it, past all the glitz and fame, Mr. Satan really did care about his little girl. She was all he had.

A slight twitch of Videl's eyelids sent Gohan and Mr. Satan into frantic hope.

"Videl?" Mr. Satan called softly. She squinted her eyes open and focused them on the first thing she saw: Gohan. Letting out a primal cry, she jumped out of bed and pinned Gohan to the ground, seizing his throat between her hands.

"You son of a bitch!" she shrieked. Gohan struggled to get the young woman off him, but surprisingly, her strength seemed to have increased dramatically. As the nurse walked in, she cried out loud by the sight and attempted to remove Videl's hands from Gohan's neck. Ignoring Mr. Satan's calls for her to stop, Videl strangled the young demi-saiya-jin, forcing all the air out of him. It wasn't until Dune walked in the room did Videl loosen her grip.

"Videl!" Dune yelled. "Off!" Videl obeyed and stood up straight. Dune looked at Gohan, disgusted, as he tried to catch his breath, rubbing his neck.

"What's…" he coughed. "What's gotten into her?!" Dune didn't answer, still glaring at Gohan. Once he had finally caught his breath, he got a good glimpse at Videl. She looked different…colder. Even darker, though her skin had become considerably pale. He wasn't able to see her shadow-covered face, though. "Videl?" She responded with a deathly glare, chilling enough to cause him to gulp.

"Videl!" Mr. Satan exclaimed. "What's wrong with you? I was so worried-" He froze in mid-sentence when she shot him a glance. It was almost terrifying.

"Let's go," Dune commanded Videl. She turned to Gohan. "Tell the nurse I picked Videl up." The girls left the room, leaving the bewildered guys behind.

*~*~*~*

"It's done…" Sukoshin whispered. She clenched her eyes shut. "I failed!" Kaioshin gave a look of panic.

"That's not true," he tried to calm Sukoshin. "Trust me! Even when the odds are stacked against them, the Z Warriors always pull through! It's not over till it's over!" Sukoshin tilted her chin up.

"You're right," she agreed. "I have to be strong. This is the universe's most important week, right down to the hour. Although it's not in my nature, if we need to, we must kill the hostess before she can release Apocolypse. It's a sad reality, but it's necessary." She stood up, picking up her crystal ball. "Pack your things. We're paying Earth and their warriors a visit."

*~*~*~*

Back on the ship of the Armageddon Sisters, the whole crew was assembled and prepared for the long adventure before them, taking place on the back-water planet of Earth.

"Congratulations!" Doom praised. "I welcome you as the newest member of the Armageddon Sisters. You may not be a blood sister, but you will fit in just right. After that rather amusing scene you displayed back in the infirmary, I just know you'll do fine."

"You understand your assignment, right?" Crisis asked. "It's fairly simple. All you have to do is be at the right place at the right time."

"Leave the rest to us," Peril explained. "We just need you to channel Apocolypse's powers. And your old name is too plain. We'll have to pick a new one." Peril gave it some thought. "How does…Devil sound?" Videl smirked cruelly. 

"Sounds perfect," she murmured.

"And so it begins," Dune said with a grin.

*~*~*~*

Vegeta tapped his finger on the mouse key every three seconds, staring at the screen of information concerning recorded logs of various generals under Freeza's command. He had managed to recover some of the data from his belongings found while he had spent that 6 months looking for Goku before Mirai Trunks had appeared. The information he had acquired included planet's religion, myths, ceremonies, and other various culture related topics. So far, nothing on an 'Armagen' anywhere. Then again, he took into consideration that these frauds were using fake names on Earth.

Continuing his rhythmic tapping of the mouse, he found himself blanking out at times. It was until he heard the computer give an affirmative beep that it had found something did he snap back to reality. He typed in random codes to enter the password-encoded archive and bypassed the shield. A document came up on the screen, labelled "Armageddon". 

Skimming through its contents, Vegeta turned significantly pale, considering that he rarely ever went pale from fear. He gradually clicked the print button and waited for the computer to print the document.

"I need to tell that brat about this," he said slowly.

*~*~*~*


	8. Chapter 8

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 8

Mr. Satan was not one to panic over the well-being of his offspring. He was more than sure she could take care of herself. She had demonstrated enough times that she was far stronger than her old man. But at the moment, he couldn't help feeling worried. She had not returned home since she had left with Dune earlier that afternoon. This had Mr. Satan pacing back and forth across his spacious living. The last time he had done anything remotely like this was when Videl had been training how to fly with Gohan. But at least then, she hadn't gone into a strange half-hour coma, which had followed her previous unknown screaming. If that wasn't enough to make even the most stable father concerned, then he didn't know what would.

The front door creaked open and in walked the afore mentioned daughter. She looked tired, even depressed.

"Videl!" Mr. Satan called, glad she had come back at long last. "I've been so worried! Where have you been?" Videl stormed right by, as if she hadn't heard him. "V…Videl? What's wrong?"

"Stop calling me that!" she screamed before running upstairs to her room. Stunned and speechless, Mr. Satan stood in the living room, watching the staircase his daughter had just run up. 

Something was more than wrong. What had that Dune girl done to his little girl?

*~*~*~*

Dende nodded as he received further instructions from a disembodied voice. He nodded his head one last time before the telepathic connection was severed. Piccolo stood off to the side, watching intently.

"What did she say?" he asked hesitantly. Dende turned to him, quickly masking his worried face.

"She's coming here," the young god replied. "She says she needs to tell the Z Warriors something in person that I can't deliver. And she also mentioned that she has to dispose of the threat herself." Dende let out a heavy sigh. "Why can't things on Earth ever be peaceful?" Piccolo grinned.

"Because we have the luckiest Saiya-jins living here," he joked, trying to lighten the dark mood. Dende tried to smile, but he was more than worried.

"I suppose."

*~*~*~*

"Are you sure this is wise?" Kaioshin asked the beautiful Supreme Kai. "Why can't you relay the message through Chikyuu's guardian? It would be much easier." Sukoshin shot his an honest glance that said, 'You should talk.' She turned back to the realm door.

"I don't seem to recall you 'staying behind' when Majin Buu was on the verge of a release," she said with a smile. "You didn't give the message to Dende-sama and sit back, waiting for results. You went to the source. You fought along side them. As will I. Staying back is something I've never done. I will not…in fact…I refuse to be held back! It's my fault to begin with. Dear Kaioshin, you'll have to chain me down with your most powerful titanium shackles to keep me from leaving." Kaioshin had to admit, she was bold. Nothing could hold back a woman like her, full of so much determination. He admired her for that reason, for that quality. And for that, he stepped forward with his own proposition.

"If you're going…" he began. "Then I'm coming with you." Sukoshin was slightly surprised.

"Are you sure that is wise?" she asked, mimicking his early comment. She chuckled lightly. "I suppose that will be fine. But if I tell you to leave because it becomes more dangerous, you must obey. You are the universe's protector. We are one of the few Kais left in this once large universe, before the days of Buu. The last thing we need is for its protector to be killed."

"It's my universe too, Sukoshin-sama," Kaioshin stated firmly. "And I will fight to the death for it." Sukoshin sighed and gave her best smile. She thought what he was doing was foolish, and yet it was the noblest thing anyone she knew had ever done.

"Right," she agreed. She waved her hand over the realm door, summoning it open. "We'd better hurry." The two gods walked through the heavenly gate and all became silent on Kaioshin's planet once the door was shut again.

*~*~*~*

Tuesday morning, Gohan woke up feeling very much miserable from yesterday's turn of events. He was so sure that he would have everything cleared up about Saturday's incident. Instead, everything blew up in his face. Videl hates him now. 

"How could I let this happen?" he asked himself. 

It never even occurred to him that the dreams he was having were trying to forewarn him about what was to come. 

He didn't want to bring himself to go to school. The only problem was convincing his mother to let him stay home. She knew saiya-jin didn't get sick. There was no upcoming tournament to train for. He couldn't think of an adequate excuse.

"Gohan!" said her faint voice from outside his room. "Wake up! Time for school." Gohan groaned. Her voice was getting louder. He looked towards his window and saw a couple birds flying around. Then an idea popped into his head. She didn't have to know he ditched school. Hell, he had done it hundreds of times before when aiding Videl in crime fighting, and Chi-chi had never found out once. He let out another groan when he remembered that he had a test in Language Arts class. A major test that he couldn't just miss, or else he'd need a doctor's note. Oh well. So much for that idea. He hauled himself out of bed, strapping his Saiyaman watch on.

*~*~*~*

Vegeta threw a punch at an invisible enemy that only he could see. He felt the need to train intensely every since he had found that "Armageddon" file. If what was in that document was true, he'd be needing the extra strength. If it was true, then the universe's biggest threat was right here on Earth, for Kami knows how long, sitting in a goddamn statue.

He hated to admit it, but he really needed to inform every one. It'd be unfair if he was the only who got time to prepare for the upcoming threat. And he needed to tell Gohan about their plans for a 'host' or whatever, before they found whoever they were looking.

Vegeta grunted as he threw another punch. 

He had the strangest feeling he was too late.

*~*~*~*

Gohan looked back and forth, scanning the school premises for any signs of…well, anyone, basically. The last thing he wanted was for people to start screaming and taunting him. All he wished was that everything could go back to the way things were when he had first started school. Back when he was a nobody, no one wanted to hang out with, no one picked as a target. He just wished it would all go away and vanish. If he could do things differently, he would've never become Saiyaman. That way, he would have never become mixed up with Videl and Buu and everything that followed. But then again, he couldn't deny that there were ups and downs with the whole…everything. After all, deny all he wanted, he had developed a crush on Videl. He didn't really think anything of it, though.

But things had come crashing down all around him. Now she hated him with all her heart for something he didn't even think he did. 

But why should she believe him? 

He was positively sure that Pearl had set him up. All the Armagen sisters had set him up. The only thing he couldn't figure out was why? Why would they go through all the trouble to break up his and Videl's friendship? Maybe they were jealous. But even jealousy wouldn't drive a person to go through so much planning. He had already come to the conclusion that one of them had sent the GGS club to his house for witnesses. That he had figured out when he remembered Dune's early comment about how they were going to be there a while.

Gohan cautiously entered his first period class, which happened to be Language Arts. He figured he'd get the test done with and skip the rest of his classes. No point in going to the rest since most of this work was child's play.

He checked his watch, glad that he was ten minutes early, so he sat at his desk and covered his head with a book. Only moments later, he heard the class door open and someone came storming in, sobbing. Gohan peeked from under his book and spotted Erasa of all people. He figured it was safe to come out since she was one of the few people who didn't hate him. Erasa paid him no attention as she buried her head in her arms and wept for an unknown reason. Warily, Gohan tapped her shoulder.

"Um…Erasa?" he said softly. "What's wrong?" She stopped crying and looked at him slowly.

"Something's wrong with her…" she whispered. Gohan had no idea who she was talking about.

"Who?"

"Videl…" Erasa sniffed as she wiped away her tears. Gohan panicked slightly. There were a million possibilities running through his head of what might be wrong with Videl. It could have been her freak episode yesterday, it could have been Dune after she took Videl away, it could have been… "She's so different." Gohan released the breath he had been holding. So that was it. Just a little personality change.

"How so?" he asked, once he regained some composer.

"I was…worried about her after what happened yesterday…" Erasa began. "So I gave her a call last night. Her dad said she wasn't home yet. I didn't think much about. I called her again this morning and she was home, but…she sounded kinda different. It was like her voice had no emotion. I asked if she was okay, and she just…started screaming and yelling at me! I didn't know what to do. She basically summed it up by saying 'Leave me alone', except in a much more colorful choice of words, one which began with F." Erasa let out a low, quiet whine. "I didn't say anything to her to upset her. I just…I don't know." She buried her head once again and continued to weep. 

Gohan was completely speechless. That didn't sound like Videl at all. Of course, Erasa could be testing him. Then again, she couldn't fake a cry attack. She only cried when she felt her friendship was in danger.

The only Gohan could do was gently rub her back, trying to sooth her tears away.

The early morning bell rang out loudly, making Erasa groan in resent towards it. She had developed a headache from crying too much. Students walked in, each and everyone one of them, except Sharpner, throwing Gohan an evil stare. Sharpner, instead, gave Gohan a look of pity. His attention was drawn to Erasa.

"What happened?" he asked quietly. "What's wrong?" Erasa retold the story to Sharpner, also leaving him wordless. "We'll talk to her at lunch." And he left it at that. They currently had a test to worry about now. Erasa looked to her right, expecting to see Videl, but the raven-haired fighter was nowhere to be found. Instead, Videl was sitting in the back row along side the Armagen sisters. Realization dawned on Erasa as she put two and two together. She gave the sisters a dirty glare before turning back to the front.

"Okay class," Ms. Brady said loudly. "I'm gonna give you about ten minutes to study for the test, then I'm handing them out and I want complete silence afterwards. You may chit-chat with your neighbors if you need a study partner or need help. But please, try to keep the talking to a minimal volume so I can hear myself think. And I better not hear a single word that isn't related to Japanese class or history. Got it?" The class nodded briefly. "Then go!" Immediately, the class practically burst into chatter. Erasa took this time to confront Videl and find out if her suspicions were right.

"So Videl," Erasa started. "Where were you last night?" Videl stared a piercing hole through the blond.

"Didn't I tell you off this morning, Cry-baby?" she spat. Erasa felt her heart sting, but pushed it aside. At this point, Gohan and Sharpner turned around slightly to see what was going on.

"You were with _them, weren't you?" Erasa growled, referring to the sisters, who were watching with interest. Videl didn't reply. "Why won't you tell me?" Erasa demanded. "I'm only trying to help you! I thought we were friends!"_

"You were actually thinking?" Videl scoffed. "That's a first. Maybe there is actually brunette hair under all that blond."

"Stop it, Videl," Sharpner ordered gently. "If you know what you're saying is hurting her, why are you saying it?"

"Stay out of this, Pretty boy!" Videl barked. "If I wanted your opinion, I'd beat it out of you. And you know I would." Sharpner backed out somewhat. "Anyone else want to be a hero?" She turned her attention to Gohan. "And what are you staring at, Saiya-nerd? Got something to say, then say it!" Gohan looked away from her heated glare. "Oh what's this? The peacekeeper is actually backing out of a fight! Isn't it your job to butt in where you aren't needed? You seemed to do that a lot when we first met. Remember?" Gohan refused to speak. He didn't want to start an argument in front of the whole class. "C'mon! You know I'm right. Sticking your nose in places where it didn't belong! Well now Mr. Big Mouth has nothing to say. What a shame. I guess since you're off limits, I'll just go back to pissing off Erasa then."

"Stop it!" Gohan yelled, unable to stop the anger inside him from rising. "Just leave her alone! Haven't you tormented her enough?" Videl back off, pretending to be shocked.

"My, my, my," she snapped. "It speaks! And rudely, I might add. I thought your mother would have taught you better! Considering it was just her raising you since you killed you dad 8 years ago." Gohan gasped and choked on his own breath. "Oops, did I let that slip?" Videl snickered cruelly. He was fuming, by far angry. 

This was not the same Videl he knew. Erasa was right. There was something wrong. 

Not letting his Saiya-jin side conquer, he turned around and paid attention to his books. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rice," Videl said sarcastically. "Don't go away angry! Just go away!" Gohan shut his eyes tightly, blocking out her voice. This was not the same Videl indeed. What had those Armagen sisters done to her? Videl would never say those things. She was usually very cautious when talking about his father…but what she had just said was unforgivable.

"Time's up!" Ms. Brady announced. "I hope you all studied well because this is going towards your overall mark. It's worth roughly 10% of your final mark." She handed out the three page test to everyone in the class. "Now take a second to put your name at the top and briefly flip through to get a feel of this test." Gohan looked through the test and came to the conclusion he'd be done in a few minutes. "Okay, relax, breathe, and…begin!" The teens opened the booklet and began writing. Within 2 minutes, Gohan was half done. But even so, he couldn't concentrate after Videl's outburst.

The class was rudely interrupted when Videl's wrist watch went off.

"Videl!" said the chief of police through the communicator. "There's a hostage situation going on at the Satan Casino. Videl! Videl, are you there?" Videl slammed her pencil onto her desk and pressed a button on her watch.

"Shut your trap, will ya?!" she screamed into the communicator. "I'm trying to write a test! Kami, why can't you ever deal with anything on your own?"

"Videl, we need your help!" the chief practically pleaded. Gohan peeked over his shoulder to see Videl ignoring the communicator. He finally couldn't take anymore.

"Ms. Brady!' he called, raising his hand. "I need to go!" Ms. Brady raised an eyebrow.

"Look, Gohan," she said, slightly miffed. "I know you're Great Saiyaman job is calling to you, but this is a very important test. I'm afraid you can't just leave! Videl's the only one who has permission from the police force to leave class." Gohan looked from Videl, to his test, then back to Ms. Brady. He scooted out of his chair and to the front of the class.

"Ms. Brady," he whispered. "Videl can't leave right now…she's not feeling well. I think it's…that time of the month." Ms. Brady's frown wore off.

"Oh…" she said, also quietly. "Alright, I suppose. But get a note from the chief of police, okay? I'll let you finish the test after the March Break." Gohan grinned and said his thanks before running out of the class.

Once he got to the roof, he switched to Saiyaman mode and took to the skies towards Satan Casino. 

*~*~*~*

Landing soundlessly beside a barrage of police cars, he confronted the police chief, Daniel Newman.

"Saiyaman!" Chief Newman exclaimed happily. "Thank god you're here!" Daniel looked around Gohan. "But where's Videl?" Gohan hesitated with his answer.

"She's a bit under the weather," he replied. "She's not really herself today." That was the truth. Chief Newman accepted this answer and decided to fill in Saiyaman with the details.

"About five men have taken civilians and Satan Casino staff members hostage. Apparently, they were asked to leave because thy were causing quite a stir, but the men rebelled and pulled out guns, ordering everyone to get down. Now they're demanding for a helicopter and safe passage out of the country." Gohan nodded and turned to the scene.

"Do you have any snipers set up?" he asked. Chief Newman nodded. "Call them off. Leave these terrorists to me." With that, Gohan took into the sky and landed on the casino roof. It seemed really weird without Videl by his side, but he brushed off the feeling and carefully made a hole in the sun roof with a small ki beam. He slipped in and hovered above everyone where they couldn't see him. Spotting the five men, he created five small energy balls, enough to stun the men. He let them go and they found their intended target, knocking out the men before they knew what hit them.

"Too easy," Gohan muttered as he flew back out to inform Chief Newman of his accomplishment.

"Great job, Saiyaman!" the chief cheered. "I'm glad you're on our side! If there's anything you need, anything at all, just let me know." He checked his watch. "I bet if you hurry, you can make it back to school for second period." Gohan grinned goofily.

"Thanks," Then he remembered Ms. Brady's warning. "Oh, almost forgot. I need a note from you explaining where I was."

"Yes, just a moment…" Daniel quickly scribbled a note down and handed it to Gohan. "Thanks again, Saiyaman." Gohan levitated above the ground.

"Right, I'll see ya around, Chief Newman!" he said before leaving. 'Right, as if I'd want to go back to school.' He figured this was just the break he needed, so he flew to the outskirts to find a nice place to meditate.

*~*~*~*

Chi-chi hummed softly to herself as she washed the dishes. She placed the clean plate in the drying rack and moved on to the next dish. A moment later, there was a knock at the front door.

"Goku!" she called. "Could you get the door?" Not a second later, Goku was at the door, opening it and greeting the visitor.  
"Vegeta!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" Chi-chi poked her head out of the kitchen and indeed saw Vegeta at the door.

"Where's the brat?" he asked Goku. 

"Goten?" Goku replied. "He didn't get into trouble again did he-"

"Not that one!" Vegeta huffed. "Your first born."

"Oh! He's at school. Why?" Vegeta growled and looked towards the horizon.

"He's not at school. Tell me where he is!" he said calmly. Goku scratched his head, confused.

"Vegeta, I'm pretty sure he's at school. I saw him leave this morning." Then Chi-chi came around the corner at the mention of Gohan not at school.

"What do you mean he's not at school?" she asked quietly, not intending to interrupt them rudely.

"I sensed him leave the high school earlier," Vegeta replied. "I wasn't sure where he went, so I came to see if he came home."

"He ditched classes!" Chi-chi huffed. "Well, I'm sure it's because of his Saiyaman thing. So why do you need to see him?"

"I need to deliver information," Vegeta replied, turning slightly. The thought of actually helping Kakorrot's spawn sickened him. But he did have some respect for the demi-saiya-jin.

"Information?" Goku asked. The shorter saiya-jin sighed in frustration. He was going to have to tell them what was happening.

"Kakorrot, come with me. Shrew, stay here, and don't try to eavesdrop." Chi-chi sent him a daggering stare. Vegeta and Goku took to the skies and flew far from the Son's house, landing in a nearby forest. "Look, I'm only going to tell you this once, so listen carefully." Goku nodded, now in serious mode. "Your son has stumbled upon and pissed off three of the most dangerous people in the galaxy." Goku's eyes shot up.

"He did?! What didn't he tell me?" he exclaimed, surprised. 

"Because he doesn't know! Baka! Has he told you about any new kids in his class?"  
"Uh...yeah, three new girls."

"Those are the Armageddon Sisters, feared because they hold the key to annihilating the entire universe. I found a document describing the acts they've committed. Here's the kicker. They've been around for well over 10, 000 years. Doom, Crisis, and Pearl are their names. The reason they are feared is because their mother, Chaos, created a woman consisting of pure evil and power, capable of destroying anything in her way. Her name is-"

"Apocolypse." Goku and Vegeta turned to the source of the voice and spotted Kaioshin standing next to a strange woman dressed similar to a Supreme Kai. "Thank goodness you are aware of some of the circumstances," the purple-skinned woman said smoothly. "It saves me a good deal of explaining."

"Who are you?" Goku asked.

"My name is Sukoshin," the woman answered, bowing deeply. "I am a Supreme Kai, one who was around even before the Armageddon Sisters were even born, before Buu, before Apocolypse." She paused. "We need to find your son, Goku-san. It is imperative that every fighter be informed that they'll be lending their fighting skills in one week exactly. Apocolypse is coming."

*~*~*~*


	9. Chapter 9

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 9

Doom's eyes flickered open when she sensed a presence she had not felt for 10, 000 years. She let out a low growl. They were going to get discovered. That damn Supreme Kai was going to find them! If Sukoshin found them, she'd kill them! Doom had to act quickly.

"Girls!" she hissed to her sisters. They looked up from their lunches. The Armageddon sisters and Videl were sitting under the tree like every lunch. "Sukoshin's just made her appearance on Earth. And she's brought the current Supreme Kai with her. We're running out of time."

"She's here?!" Crisis yelped. "N...no! We've gotta hide! We have to!!"

"Calm down, Crisis," Doom said quietly. "This is Chikyuu we're talking about here. There are a million hiding spots. And besides, even if she tells those brain-dead saiya-jins about us, it won't change a thing. Gohan will be with them, and if we keep Devil close to us, he won't attack us. Understand?" They all nodded. "But as a precaution, we should leave this area at once. This will be the first place they'll look." The girls stood and walked as calmly as possible to a back alley. Once sure no one could see them, they took to the sky, masking their ki.

"So where to?" Peril asked.

"To home base! We'll turn the cloaking on so they'll never find us!" Doom replied. Videl had been very quiet during the whole situation. She was not in the least bit scared of this 'Sukoshin' character. But then again, she was sort of 'programmed' not to concern herself with anything but killing Gohan and fulfilling her mission of resurrecting Apocolypse.

*~*~*~*

Doom was not the only one who was disturbed by a new presence appearing on the planet. Gohan snapped out of his meditation and nearly fell off the comfy spot he had found on a large tree. He sat up straight and extended his senses to try and discover the identity of the two new life forms that possessed such...

It was Kaioshin and...someone Gohan had never sensed before. A life form that possessed such... beauty...almost heavenly. 

Another god, perhaps? He was unsure. 

But had the feeling they were going to be there awhile, so checking his watch, he decided to go see if he could actually get a chance to talk to Videl, see what was wrong. It was well after school now.

He sprung to the air and flew off towards the Satan mansion. Arriving in no time, after he rang the front bell, a CIA-looking guy answered.

"May I help you?" he asked. Gohan put on his cheesy smile and one hand behind his head.

"Uh...is Videl here?" he asked shyly. The man studied him.

"No, Videl has not returned for quite some time," he replied coolly. "Would you like me to deliver a message for when she gets back?"

"Uh, just tell her Gohan dropped by."

"Gohan?" said a voice from inside. The guard was shoved aside by Mr. Satan. "Gohan! Great to see ya!" the 'world saviour' exclaimed quite happily. "How's it going?"

"Um...not so good," Gohan admitted. "Have you see Videl at all today?"

"Only this morning," Mr. Satan answered sadly. "She was late coming home last night and practically blew up at me when I asked if she was okay." Gohan almost gasped in surprise. "I haven't seen her since she left for school. I was actually hoping you'd know where she is." Gohan shrugged.

"I was called for Saiyaman duty and she refused to help," he explained. "She screamed at the police chief. But before that, she was ripping everyone to pieces with her harsh words."

"It has to be that Dune girl," Mr. Satan growled. "She took my little girl right after that incident in the infirmary." Gohan didn't know how to explain it, but he almost positive that the Armagen sister had something to do with Videl's drastic change. No one goes from sweet, almost innocent to bitchy and absolutely horrid in one day without some influence.

After saying his goodbyes to the 'Champ', Gohan left for home. Then his mind wandered to the Supreme Kai. What was he doing on Earth? Finally allowing his curiosity to get the best of him, he followed the ki signal until he got to a forest close to his house. He descended to the ground and spotted Kaioshin, his father, Vegeta, and an unknown woman standing together, discussing something.

"Hey guys!" Gohan called. "What's going on?" They all turned at the sound of his voice.

"I guess this saves us having to go looking for you," Kaioshin said with a grin. Gohan's eyebrows went up slightly.

"Me?" he repeated. "Why me?"

"Listen carefully, Son Gohan," the woman said softly. "I'm Sukoshin, the Supreme Kai of 10 thousand years ago. We need your help because your friend has been taken captive, mentally." Gohan stumbled forward, getting confused.

"What?" he mumbled.

"Let me start from the beginning, I suppose," Sukoshin said with a heavy sigh. "Back in 10 000 B.C.E., a woman named Chaos Armageddon was born, on the planet Orin, with the very first imbalance of good and evil. She had more evil in her than good. This allowed her to do things without thinking, to commit acts of violence without a conscience. 

"She met someone who was also born with such an imbalance. His name was Havoc. They married and had three children, Doom, Crisis, and Peril. Together, this family of heathens began to reek disasters and panic universe wide. It was because of them that Kais everywhere had to band together and attempt to stop them. Havoc was captured and executed immediately. I suppose the lose of her husband threw Chaos over the edge and she used every bit of energy and evil inside her to create a being capable of annihilating the entire universe with just a thought. And since this person was created and not born, she was able to sustain completely evil with no room for good. Unfortunately for Chaos, that drained her life-force away and she passed on. The new evil, dubbed Apocolypse by her fallen mother, picked up where her parents left off, and began her rein of terror throughout the universe, with her sisters, the last of the Armageddon family, by her side. 

"This is where I come into the story. In an attempt to stop Apocolypse, I used my energy reserve to seal her away in a statue shaped like the untameable lion and sent it far away where the Armageddon Sisters could never find it. 

"See, if I had used every bit of energy, I would have died. But one of the other Kais, I believe it was North Kai, he recommended I base the sealing spell on the elements of the remaining sisters. So when I locked away Apocolypse, I created three cubes, Water, Terrain, and Energy, to extract her powers. Those cubes were scattered across the universe, but still left me very weak. I had to put myself under a deep stasis sleep to regain my powers, and in the mean time, I granted the powers of Supreme Kai to Old Kaio-o-shin. Unfortunately, it was the exact moment I fell asleep that Buu struck. I had a crystal ball that kept me informed, even while asleep. It was also an internal alarm clock to wake me, should the Armageddon Sisters come near Apocolypse's statue. Apparently, I didn't hide it well enough. 

"Some followers of the Armageddon Clan found it and discovered some stupid ritual to revive Apocolypse. It involved placing the cubes at very precise spots around the statue, pointing at Orin, and its two neighbouring stars, Helenia and Garmelon, birth systems of Havoc and the Armageddon Sisters. The cowardly followers built temples in the exact places, the Temples of Orin. When those three stars become aligned, they reflect a strange light that reaches Earth on its Spring Equinox. This event only occurs every 2500 years. The light is supposed to activate or trigger the elemental cubes to send off a pulse of energy right back at the stars. When the pulse is sent back, it strikes the statue of Apocolypse. The Temples have small pedestals attached to narrow, vertical shafts pointing to the afore mentioned stars for the cubes and one large pedestal for the hostess."

"The hostess?" Gohan asked, finally getting a moment to speak.

"A girl," Sukoshin replied. "Who must channel Apocolypse's energy during the ritual. Apparently, without the host, Apocolypse's energy gets released from the cubes, but it has nowhere to go, so it disperses. The hostess' job is to channel that energy to the statue. She must be more evil than good and has to be stronger that Chaos herself. But something the Armageddon Sisters can do is force others into evil, simply by locking onto a single angry thought. That's how they got so many followers, and that's how they got the hostess." The god paused, waiting for this new information to sink into Gohan's mind. She knew this would be difficult for him to accept, considering how close he and the 'hostess' had become.

"No…" he whispered, as the obvious dawned on him. "They…they took Videl? They messed around with her mind?!" Gohan shook his head in disbelief. "No! Why her?! She…What's going to happen to her?" Sukoshin sighed and hesitated.

"I'm not entirely sure," she answered truthfully. "I've only recently become aware of this ritual they've been planning. Like I said, it's only the hostess' job to channel energy. For all I know, he could be release after it's all done."

"But then again, she could be killed!" Gohan yelled. "This 'ritual' could kill her!"

"Don't jump to conclusions," Goku warned quietly. "Maybe nothing will happen at all to her." Gohan couldn't sit still. All this information had just been dumped on him, and now he's being told that the girl he's had a crush on for nearly a year has been turned evil.

'And he's telling me not to jump to conclusions,' he thought bitterly to himself.

'He's only trying to help,' Sukoshin said through Gohan's mind. Gohan nearly had a heart-attack. Then he remembered that Supreme Kais could read minds.

'Don't do that…' he thought back to her, muttering to himself. Sukoshin grinned and turned to the others.

"Let's go," she instructed. She knew Gohan wouldn't follow. He just needed time to think. The others nodded and floated up, but Goku paused, noticing his son not joining them.

"Uh, Gohan?" he inquired. "What's up? Aren't you coming? " Gohan didn't say anything, staring at the ground.

"Goku," Sukoshin called. "Let's go. He needs a little time, that's all. He'll come after." Goku looked at the female god, then to his son, then back to the others.

"Oh…okay," he muttered, nodding. The rest of them took off into the sky towards the general direction of Kami's Lookout.

Gohan sat alone on the forest ground, silent and unmoving.

"Videl…"

*~*~*~*


	10. Chapter 10

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 10

A/N: The next chapter contains a lot of references to Egyptian monuments. Any Egyptians should take note not to get offended, pissed off, or angry about what I write. After all, it's just fiction, not to be taken seriously. Thanks.

Dende swiftly made his way out of the grand palace on Kami's Lookout to greet the guests he sensed coming. Once their feet touched the ground, the young Namek bowed deeply in the presence of not just one, but two Supreme Gods. This was truly an honour. But he didn't have time to pay his respect. The situation he had been informed about by Sukoshin had alarmed him, no doubt. But he saw a million solutions to the problem. Obviously, none would be good enough because if they were, Sukoshin would have said so by now. So in a rare situation like this, he had to get straight to business and live up to his title as Guardian of Earth.

"Welcome," Dende addressed politely. "It is of great nobility to meet you, Sukoshin. And Kaioshin, I have not seen you in a while."

"Dende," Sukoshin regarded him and Piccolo with a courteous nod. "Thank you for your help so far. Have you been able to locate the statue?"

"Yes," the guardian replied. "It's in the country of Egypt. When it was found around 4000 years ago, the ancients believed it to be a symbol of a god. But since then, it's been…eh…remodelled." Sukoshin's brow rose involuntarily.

"What do you mean?" Dende put his hand behind his head.

"Well…"

*~*~*~*

"What the HELL?!" Doom shrieked. "They've desecrated the Grand Sister's statue! Those damn humans!" Doom and Peril had gone to the Orin Temples to make sure everything was in order, but what they had found had disgusted them to no ends.

The surrounding area had been turned into something the humans called "The Giza Plateau." Basically, a tourist attraction. The Temples were swarmed with hundreds of insect humans, crawling on top, inside, and all around the three temples. They had given them to three ancient kings, and labelled the Main Temple: The Great Pyramid. 

But that wasn't the worst.

The loin-shaped statue, containing Apocolypse's life-force, had been violated. Instead of it resembling a pure lion, it now had a human face carved in on its head. Doom was about to go loco and destroyed the human-infested hell hole called Earth. They were lucky that this just happened to be the planet where Apocolypse was, or else it would have been gone by now.

"I can't believe their nerve!" Peril growled, infuriated. "What, they just found a statue, lying around, and decided to carve in someone else's head?! Have they no respect for other's belongings?!" Doom shook her head as the wandering around the 'Great Pyramid'. Peril glared at each passer-by while they entered the Temple and looked around the main hall. 

There was a baby in particular that was annoying both sisters, because of its insufferable crying. Doom had to ask herself how any human could say they loved those things. They had to be the most unintelligent creatures on the face of the planet. All they did, as a mode of communication, was wail. Even more primitive animals, like cats, had some form of body language or growls to communicate with their mothers. Well over 8/10 of human mothers didn't and never will know what their baby's crying means. Half the time, they're guessing. But Doom and Peril could understand what they baby in the main hall was thinking. They could, after all, read minds. After the baby's mother ignored the child's wailing for about 15 minutes, Peril could take no more.

"For Chaos' sake, woman!" she screamed. "Don't you even know what your own child wants?!" The mother stared at Peril in bewilderment. "He wants food! Okay?! Give him his goddamn bottle!" Doom shook her head, annoyed, and dragged Peril off.

"Could we please try to keep a low profile?" she hissed to Peril.

"That ungrateful mother wasn't even listening to her child. I read her mind; she was thinking that her baby was loud and obnoxious. The baby's thoughts were broadcasting, loud and clear: I want milk! You'd think his crying would be a dead give away!" Doom hushed her sister and changed the subject. 

"The Book of the Morning Star specifically referrers to a maze of passages," Doom whispered to her sister. "Where's the maze? All I see is a straight hall to the Chamber of Power."

"I'll check with Crisis," Peril replied, as she flipped open a palm-pilot and contacted her big sister. "Crisis, you there?"

"Yeah, hear ya loud and clear," the green-haired sister answered. "Go ahead."

"Get the Book of the Morning Star. We need to know about the mazes. There are none here." There were sounds of shuffling before Crisis replied.

"Found it," she announced. "There's a spell here that were have to chant to activate 'the Maze defence'. A bunch of misleading corridors are supposed to appear and the main hall is masked. The reason they aren't up yet is because if they were, we wouldn't be able to get through. There are traps located along each random corridor. The spell is to be used inside the Chamber of Power once the hostess is prepared. Got it?"

"Right," Peril said before snapping the communicator shut. "You heard, Doom?"

"Yes." Doom followed the main hall to the top where they entered the Chamber of Power, dubbed the 'King's Chamber' by the locals. Peril still couldn't believe that they thought a dead guy had been buried in the Temples of Orin.

Doom traced her fingers along the wall until she found a square hole. She crouched down and examined it. It looked big enough to fit an elemental cube. Behind Doom, Peril was also examining the wall opposite of Doom's. She, too, found a square hole, leading somewhere.

"What's this shaft for?" she asked.

"The hostess's essence is to be place there," Doom explained. "Down stairs in the Preparing Chamber, we're supposed to put father and mother's essence into similar shafts. The Book says something about an energy produced from their life essence that's required in Apocolypse." 

"Gotcha," Peril said with a smile. After thoroughly examining each pyramid to ensure nothing else had been tampered with, they headed back to home base.

*~*~*~*

Gohan walked aimlessly through the woods where Sukoshin and the others had left him hours ago. He was still thinking and mostly moping about the recent lose. At least everything made sense now, and Gohan did hate it when nothing made sense. 

Everything had been planned all along.

He thought he was just being paranoid, but they really were trying to break apart his friendship with Videl. Those lying, manipulative, bitches! He would never forgive them. They'd better hope that there's someway to bring the real Videl back. 

'The whole thing was planned out carefully,' he thought bitterly. 'They're the ones who gave the GGS club my address. After all, how else could those crazy girls have found me? And the sisters were in the office a bunch of times, so they had the opportunity to get the files with my address. Then that means they're the ones who started that rumour about me and Videl. They were trying to get Videl to hate me even then. And no thanks to that GGS club, I lost a lot of sleep, so I lashed out. Then the party. Since they're telepathic, they probably read my mind about having to walk Videl home and had Pearl lure me away from the party, convincing Videl I ditched her. That stupid kiss…Pearl must've tricked me somehow. She probably went back to that party and told everyone what happened. And Videl found out why I ditched her…' Gohan swallowed hard as he stopped to lean on a tree. 'And she's so paranoid that she must've thought if she walked home with me instead of Pearl, I would've tried the same thing on her.' Gohan clenched his eyes and banged his head on the tree.

Perfect…Just brilliant…

'I just love a well-thought out plan," Gohan thought sarcastically.

*~*~*~*

"I don't under why we can't go and blow up the damn temple!" Vegeta barked. "Bye-bye temple, no resurrection, end of story."

"Actually, the story wouldn't quite end there," Sukoshin retorted. "It'd go more like this. Bye-bye temple, no resurrection, the Earth goes bye-bye too, and we're all killed. End of story." Goku and Vegeta stared at her with shocked.

"What do you mean?" the younger Saiya-jin asked.

"I mean if we destroy the temples, that sets off a chain-reaction of explosions in the Earth's core. The followers of Armageddon weren't as stupid as you guys think! They ridged it to take out this very planet, should something happen to the whole building. Chikyuu will be destroyed along with the temples, and I didn't come all the way here so I could be killed by a petty explosion. If you're going to help me, you need to follow my instructions to the letter. Understood?" The two Saiya-jins nodded, yes, including Vegeta, who was in no mood to put a fight. "Good. I do have some sort of plan. It will take accuracy and patience, but I think we can pull it off." She paused and waited. Goku and Vegeta leaned foreword somewhat, waiting for her to continue, but she did not.

"Well come on!" Vegeta yelled. "Out with it!" Just as he said that, Gohan made his appearance and landed beside Sukoshin.

"That's who I was waiting for," the soft-spoken god said. "Gohan, have you had time to think things through?"

"Yes," Gohan replied reluctantly. Sukoshin hesitated with her next statement.

"Gohan, if necessary, will you do what you need to if things get out of hand?" 

Gohan, staring at his feet, replied, "Yes." Sukoshin's eyes momentarily became clouded with sadness.

"I know this must be very hard for you," she whispered. "But I'll do everything in my power to keep things from escalating that far." He nodded, emotionlessly. Goku looked back and forth from his son to Sukoshin.

"Uh…" he mumbled. "What are you guys talking about?" Neither answered. Kaioshin sighed.

"They're talking about Videl," the short god whispered. "Sukoshin is saying that if we come close to running out of time before resolving this problem, she wants to know if Gohan is willing to…kill the hostess." Goku yipped.

"But the hostess is Videl!" he yelled a little too loud. Everyone's head shot in his direction while Gohan winced slightly. Goku bashfully covered his mouth.

"Gomen nasai," he mumbled. Everyone turned their attention back to Sukoshin.

"Now then, here's what I have planned," she began. "Since there's nothing really to be done about the temples themselves, we do have one more option. The followers of Armageddon designed the temples and wrote a detailed book called the Book of the Morning Star cross-examining every action that must take place. North Kai and East Kai were able to acquire another version of this book from a follower whom had passed away and was caught by Enma-sama. It says in the book that the hostess is supposed to placed on a specific pedestal, and the three elemental cubes are to be placed inside a shaft, located in the east wall of all three pyramids. They referrer to the rooms in which this occurs as 'the Chamber of Power'. What we need to do is destroy the shafts and pedestal so they can't align the cubes or the hostess correctly."

"That sounds like it might work," said Kaioshin. "So why don't we do that right now?" Sukoshin hesitated.

"Well, here's where the tricky part comes in," she explained. "In order for this to work properly, we'd have to wait until a few hours or less before the summoning happens." Everyone fell over from shock.

"Are you serious?!" Gohan yelled. "That's cutting it kinda close, isn't it? I mean, what if we screw up or something? There won't be enough time to fix the mistake!"

"That's what I'm counting for!" Sukoshin snapped. "Not for us to run out of time, but for them to run out of time. See, if we destroyed the pedestal now, they find out sooner or later and simply repair it. They do have the Book of the Morning Star after all, and it says where it is located. At least this way, if we destroyed it with seconds until the Equinox, they wouldn't have enough time to repair it and there goes their chance to revive Apocolypse for another 2500 years. By this time, we can deal with the Armageddon sisters and turn Videl back to normal."

"We can do that?" Gohan asked. "Turn her back, I mean."

"Of course! It says somewhere in the Book that her loved ones and a golden light can extinguish the darkness plaguing her soul. I haven't figured out what the golden light is yet, but I know who her loved ones are." Sukoshin turned to Dende. "Dende-sama, with your permission, may I teleport a human to your lookout?" Dende gave a shocked look.

"Why not?' he replied kindly. "After all, you should even bother asking me. You're higher in the chain of command." Sukoshin smiled and closed her eyes, concentrating on something. Her body began to radiate with a blue light and she began to fade away. 

Moments later, she returned from wherever, but not alone. Holding onto her arm was Mr. Satan himself.

"Not him!" Vegeta wined. "C'mon!"

"Vegeta, please…" Sukoshin muttered, silencing him. "He's important to this plan to revive the real Videl."

"That's right!" Mr. Satan remarked. "I want Videl back as much as anyone else, most likely more! Those Armageddon Sisters have got another thing coming to them if they think they can kidnap my little girl! I'll just scare them with my martial arts and kick them-"

"Mr. Satan, you're not helping any," Sukoshin uttered, a hand on her forehead. "Anyway, I've informed him of everything and our plan. Despite the fact that he had lied to the entire world, people everywhere trust him and they trust his judgement. If things get too serious, we'll need him to evacuate the people of Cairo and they'll only listen to his voice. Another reason why we need him is because he is among the list of people who are loved ones to Videl. Every key player must attend this event."

"Who are the other loved ones?" Goku asked. Sukoshin gave a mischievous grin.

"Well, Videl is a bit fond of you and your wife. She thinks of her as a second mother. And Goten would be like the little brother she never had." The Kai turned away, still smiling as if she knew a big secret no one else knew. "And…she's also very fond of Gohan." Gohan gasped.

"Me?" he questioned.

"Of course…" Sukoshin shrugged, showing that she was not going to say anymore on the subject. "Now then. Is everything clear?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Go back to your daily routines. Act as if everything is fine, but let your family and friends of what is planned. Vegeta, your wife might be of some use. She is skilled with the mechanics, is she not?" Vegeta nodded. "Good. And Goku, we'll be needing your wife and second son for the loved ones plan. Gohan, I want you to make no mention of this plan to anyone. Let Vegeta and your father take care of informing everyone. If you're near the Armageddon sisters and they try to read your mind, they might pick up on the plan. The more people you tell, the more fresh in your memory banks it'll be and easier for the sisters to pick up on. Understood?"

"Perfectly, clear," Gohan said with a determined face. "But what if by some off chance they do release Apocolypse? Would there be any chance of stopping her? Couldn't you just seal her up again?"

"I'm afraid not. Not even if I used the last of my energy and sacrificed myself to seal her up, it wouldn't be enough. I haven't recovered yet."

"I see. So we better not screw up, huh?" Gohan chuckled. Sukoshin grinned.

"You can go ahead and screw up if you want. I'll just get on your case while we're in the after world."

*~*~*~*

Goku and Gohan returned home much later. The first thing they were met by was a lecture by Chi-chi. She was calmer than usually, which surprised the two older Son boys. After the lecture was over, Goku asked Gohan to go study while he explained the details of Sukoshin's plan to Chi-chi. 

Gohan found himself feeling very useless at the moment because he wasn't allowed to tell anyone about the plan or anything. He decided to sit back and read a book or something. 

Just as he pulled out an old favourite of his, the phone rang. Knowing his parents were busy at the moment discussing strategy, he picked up the phone.

"Moshi, moshi," he greeted.

"Gohan, is that you?" asked a female voice. "It's Erasa. Where were you? You didn't come back after the casino thing!"

"I…got sidetracked," Gohan answered carefully. "Oh, how'd the talk with Videl go at lunch?"

"We never even found her! She was gone! And after lunch, I usually have math with her, but she wasn't there. But then again, neither were those stupid Armagen girls. I swear, something about them just gets me so angry!"

"I thought you like them at first."

"Not anymore! No one steals my best friend and gets away with it!" Gohan chuckled on his end of the line.

"Dedication," he stated. "And loyalty. That's probably why Videl's so…fond of you…" He trailed off.

"Gohan? Gohan! You there?"

"Uh, yeah, still here. Anyway, I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow!" He quickly hung up. "I need to talk to Sukoshin-sama again," he said to himself. "More people to add to her list of loved ones."

*~*~*~*

Erasa huffed as she was hung up on. 'He's probably busy, that's all.' It made perfect sense. A smart guy like Gohan didn't have time to be chatting on the phone when he had studying and work to do. She checked her watch and decided, since it was just after 6:00, she'd pay those Armagen girls a visit. She was finally gonna give them a piece of her mind, even if people said there wasn't much to give. Erasa was a very bright girl and not as stupid as her classmate took her for. After all, how else could she have gotten into a great school like Orange Star High? Certainly not dumb luck, pardon the pun. 

She slipped on her shoes and stormed out the door of her house, chucking a capsule out and getting a motorbike from the minor explosion. Hopping on and putting on her sleek helmet, she revved the motor once to get it going and sped off towards the house which just that Saturday had held a grand party, probably the best she had been to. But despite the amount of fun she had, it still ended horribly. Poor Gohan, framed for something any clear-minded person would know he would never try. Drinking and making out? Nope. Not his thing. 

She knew better. She knew Pearl had lied.

Erasa slowed down when she reached the road which the Armagens' house was supposed to be located, only…it wasn't there. There was a small, indent of where the spacious house had once been, but no sign of the actual house itself. It was as if the mansion had picked up its foundation and just walked away. 

Erasa got off her bike and walked through the empty lot. No signs of a basement ever being here, no electrical fixings, no pipes, no nothing. 

Not a trace! 

The house didn't move. It was like it was never there to begin with.

Erasa shook her head, confused. 'I know it was here! This is where the party was just last Saturday! I'm not losing my mind!' She hopped back onto her bike and drove off, still thinking about the missing house. 'I need to tell Gohan. If there was ever an expert on weird phenomenons, he's the man.'

*~*~*~*


	11. Chapter 11

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 11

After returning from Kami's lookout from telling Sukoshin about Sharpner and Erasa, Gohan headed straight to bed. On his way to his bedroom door, Goten's light was on. The only thing he had been doing for the past 10 hours was playing Ico. Gohan groaned as he fell onto his bed. He had to ask himself if he was really willing to kill Videl. 

_Videl_ for crying out loud! The girl he'd risk his own life for! 

Of course, there was still a chance to bring her back. But if things did get out of hand…he'd have to kill her. He didn't want to think of it like that. Maybe, the real her, was in pain. Maybe by killing her, he was setting her free. 

'No!' he thought stubbornly. 'I will not think like that! We're gonna win, just like we always do! And she'll be just fine!' But as strong as these hopes were, his unbearable misery kept coming back to haunt him.

*~*~*~*

'I can't do this. I can't walk into that school, after I know what's happened to her! It's just…too hard! She'll notice the difference! The plan's gonna get blown! I just can't do this!' Gohan was struggling with his conscience. It was Wednesday morning, he was on his way to school, but he couldn't bear to face Videl. Not after what he knew. He just didn't know how he'd react to seeing her like…that. Evil. 'But she's not evil! I just know she isn't. Sukoshin said it herself. We can get her back. Right?' He shook his head clear of those thoughts. 'Must remember that the Armageddon sisters can read minds. If I'm worried all day, they'll catch on.' 

Gohan closed his eyes and focused on something else. He landed on the Orange Star High building and went downstairs. He was in the middle of opening his locker when Erasa suddenly came running up to him.

"Gohan! You'll never believe what happened yesterday!" she exclaimed, worried. "C'mon, we gotta find Sharpner."

"Wait, Erasa," said Gohan. "I need to tell you about someone."

"It can wait!" Erasa urged. "We have to find Sharpner now!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him down the halls to Sharpner's locker. The blond boy just happened to be there. "Sharpner! You guys have to hear this!" Erasa looked around, as if she didn't want to get caught by someone. "I went over to the Armagens' yesterday," she said in a hushed voice. Gohan nearly gasped. That was the last place he wanted Erasa. It was too dangerous. "And the whole house was missing!" Sharpner and Gohan gave a double-puzzled look.

"Are…you sure?" Sharpner asked. "You're not kidding, are you?"

"No joke!" Erasa yelled, then quickly lowered her voice. "There was a really shallow hole, about as big as the house, where it used to be, but no pipes, no pool, no skater park, nothing! The whole place was gone!" Gohan had sort of an understanding what might have happened to the building. It was really a spacecraft. The Armageddon Sisters knew Sukoshin was here. They must've hid their ship. "I don't know how to explain it!" Then the bell rang.

"We'll worry about that later," Sharpner suggested. "After school, we'll all go to the house. Okay?" They both nodded. "C'mon Nerd," he said to Gohan, catching him by surprise in a head-lock. "If I can't beat your ass in video games, I'll do it in real life!"

"You wish!" Gohan laughed, lifting Sharpner off the ground and practically carrying him to their first period class. Erasa shook her head, slightly embarrassed.

"You guys are like children," she muttered.

They arrived at Language Arts class, and Ms. Brady gave Gohan and Sharpner a disapproving look.

"Boys, please take your seat," she said to them. Gohan dumped Sharpner to the floor.

"Sorry, miss," Gohan said, shooting a mischievous glance to Sharpner, who was picked himself up and bowing apologetically to the teacher. They raced to their seats while Erasa walked at a saner pace.

After calming down a bit and feeling much better, Gohan looked around for the Armageddon Sisters. Just like he was thinking, they were nowhere to be seen. 

'Cowards,' he thought to himself. 'They went into hiding. And Sukoshin-sama had me thinking they were all powerful.' Then, as he was turning back to the front, his eyes skimmed past Videl's seat. Except…it was empty. Gohan back tracked and indeed, Videl was missing as well. 'Oh no…' He looked around frantically, hoping they were just late. But ten minutes went by, and they didn't show up. 'The sisters are gone, and so is Videl!' Without thinking, he jumped from his seat and rushed towards to door.

"Son Gohan!" Ms. Brady thundered. Gohan froze in his tracks. "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Uh…" he gulped. "Saiyaman business."

"You still haven't given me the note from last time." Gohan quickly snatched the police note from his pocket and slapped in onto Ms. Brady's desk.

"I really have to go! Very urgent!" After receiving permission, Gohan was gone. Up in the row of desks, Erasa and Sharpner exchanged glances. They knew something else was up. Gohan only left for Saiyaman business when Videl's watch went off. How else could he know when something's wrong? The two blonds quickly formulated a plan to leave as well.

"Ow!" Erasa whined. "My head hurts!" She held her head in her hands, making it look like she was in a lot of pain. "Ms. Brady, can I go to the nurse's office?" Ms. Brady gave her a look of sympathy.

"Yes, alright," she replied.

"I'll escort her," Sharpner offered. The two teens were out in seconds.

*~*~*~*

Gohan wasn't thinking too clearly. He had put two and two together, and came up with something bad. The Armageddon Sisters were missing. Their house was missing. _Videl_ was missing! Kami only knows where they went, but even Dende wouldn't be of any help at this point. 

Gohan was on the roof of his school, preparing to take off, when he heard his name get called. He turned around and saw Erasa and Sharpner.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"I should ask you the same thing," Erasa retorted.

"I already said so. Saiyaman business."

"You can't be doing Saiyaman business when you don't know about the danger," Sharpner made mention of. "Videl's the one who gets the call. You're the one who helps out. Without Videl, you'd never know when someone's in trouble, or when a bank's getting robbed."

"Besides," Erasa added. "You're not even dressed up." Gohan looked down and realized he forgot to change outfits. "So why are you really ditching school? What's the big urgency?"

"Videl's been kidnapped!" Gohan said in one breath. Erasa gasped.

"What?! How do you know for sure?" Sharpner asked.

"Everything adds up, that how! The sisters are missing, their house is gone, and Videl's not at school. I need to find her!"

"You can just run out looking! It'll take forever!"

"You guys don't understand how important and dangerous this situation is!" Gohan took a breath. "Those Armagen girls aren't what they seem!" Sharpner gave a confused look. 

"Omigod! I knew they were bad trouble!" Erasa yelled.

"What are you talking about? You practically fell in love with them."

"Shut up! Let's go find them!"

"Hold on a sec." Gohan stretched out his sixth sense, looking for Videl's ki. And while he was at it, he looked for the sister's ki as well. Both parties came up null.

"What are you doing?" Erasa asked timidly.

"Searching for their life forces."

"How…?" Gohan looked at her, then to the sky. Explaining how he could sense ki would take too long to explain. He just didn't reply to her question. Instead, he levitated into the air.

"Oh no you don't mister!" Erasa snapped. "You aren't going anywhere without us! Videl's our friend too, y'know!" Gohan sighed and grabbed the others carefully. 

*~*~*~*

Landing just a few short metres away from where the Armagen mansion was supposed to be, Gohan's hawk-like eyes scanned the wide ditch Erasa had mentioned, but there was no sigh of anything.

"Damn," he cursed silently.

"You see?" Erasa whined. "And if you're right, Gohan, then we're never going to find Videl!"

"Not necessarily," Gohan said. "There's someone you guys should meet. She'll tell you everything about the 'Armagen' sisters and she'll hopefully shed some light on where those girls went with Videl."

"Great! Where is she? We'll use my motorcycle-capsule." Gohan looked up. "What?" Erasa followed his line of sight. "You mean…she's up in the sky somewhere." Gohan nodded. Erasa sighed.

"I don't wanna go flying again!" Sharpner complained. "We could just use my air-capsule."

"Fine," Gohan sighed.

In no time at all, the teens reached Kami's Lookout. They were greeted by Dende and the two Supreme Kais.

"Gohan, back so soon?" Sukoshin asked kindly. "I see you brought the two you spoke of."

"Videl's gone missing," Gohan said flatly. Sukoshin and Kaioshin gasped.

"Stay calm," whispered Sukoshin. "We'll still have a chance. We'll just follow the strategy exactly as planned."

"Are you sure? What if they camped out in front of the Temples? How will we get in then?"

"Um…" Erasa began quietly. "Excuse me…but Gohan promised answers?"

"Oh right!" Gohan said suddenly. "Uh, guys, this is Sukoshin. Uh…this might be hard to explain, but she's like…an entity much more…powerful than God. Uh…"

"Let me try," Sukoshin cut in, placed her hands on Sharpner and Erasa's foreheads. Her hands illuminated for a brief second, then she retracted her hands. "Understood?"

"Wow!" Erasa exclaimed. "And we just need to be at the pyramids in Egypt? Cool! I've always wanted to go to Egypt!"

"No problem on this end," Sharpner said with a salute, as if he was regarding a sergeant. Gohan fell over.

"How'd you do that?!" he stammered. Sukoshin smirked as she tilted her head to the side.

"Supreme secret," she answered.

*~*~*~*

So now the troops of allies had grown exponentially. It had begun with just Sukoshin and Kaioshin, but now everyone knew. Vegeta, Goku, Gohan, Sharpner, Erasa, Bulma, Chi-chi, Goten, Trunks, Krillin, 18, Yamcha, Piccolo, Dende, Mr. Satan, and even little Marron was aware now. And since everyone had been informed, everyone was pulling off their share. 

Sharpner, Erasa, Mr. Satan, Chi-chi, Goten, Goku, and Gohan were the 'loved ones' needed to revive the good in Videl. What they were supposed to be doing, well, that was anyone's guess. The only thing Gohan could think of was trying to talk to her, but Videl hadn't seemed very keen on talking back on Tuesday. How else was a loved one supposed to reach their family or friend?

Bulma had some equipment that could monitor the three stars Orin, Helenia, and Garmelon. It was programmed with a countdown (until precise alignment of the stars) to let the Z warriors know how much time they had left. Her computer also had been fitted with a device that tracked the location of the Z warriors, should any of them get injured and needed immediate treatment. Lastly, Bulma provided a cell phone for Goku, in case she needed to contact him while he was in the pyramid. It worked like a walkie-talkie, and Bulma had the other cell phone it was connected to. 

As the current and previous Supreme Kai, both Kaioshin and Sukoshin were going to be in attendance. Sukoshin was well aware that her presence both angered and frightened the Armageddon Sisters. The sisters were angered because Sukoshin had sealed their sister away and thus, caused their clan to fall apart. They were afraid because of what they thought Sukoshin had the ability to do the same thing to them. And it was that very fear Sukoshin was hoping to bluff her way through the upcoming battle with them. If she could catch them off guard, just once, it'd be enough to win. She was still disappointed that she couldn't figure out what this 'golden light' was that the Book of the Morning Star spoke of. If only she knew what it was, it'd give them the edge in this battle.

In the mean time, the rest of the Z warriors trained and prepared.

Gohan, Erasa, and Sharpner returned to school Thursday morning and acted perfectly normal, as if their best friend hadn't been taken away and was needed to resurrect an evil capable of wiping out the whole universe and them some, annihilating every existence in its path. Of course, even if one of them let it slip, no one would believe them.

School rolled off Gohan's back easily. He usually skimmed through the work and finished it in minutes. But now, he couldn't concentrate. None of the three could. They were nervous. So much was riding on their friendship with Videl. They had to get her back! They had to…

By the end of the day, Gohan had chewed through 6 brand new pencils. His anxiety was getting worse. All day, he kept looking back to Videl's empty chair, and panic overtook him. After school, he sat on the roof of the school and stretched his senses to their max, but still couldn't read Videl's ki anywhere. He had no idea what those Armageddon Sisters might be doing to her. That thought alone sent shivers down his spine.

After returning home from school, Gohan was greeted by his parents, who also pretended nothing was amiss. He forced a smile and mumbled something about homework before going upstairs. Passing by his little brother's room, he decided to pay Goten a visit. Just as he had guessed, Goten was playing Ico once more.

"I did it!" he cheered. "I beat the game!"

"Good job, tyke," Gohan congratulated. "How'd it end?"

"I dunno…" Goten looked up and around, as if avoiding the question. Gohan sweat dropped.

"You didn't beat the game, did you?" he asked. Goten grinned sheepishly.

"Well, no…but I had you fooled! April Fools!"

"Goten, April's not for another two weeks."

"Yeah, but I figured I should play my prank now in case we all get killed next week by your girlfriend." Gohan wasn't sure what emotion he should've felt: hurt that Goten had little faith in them, annoyed by his comment about 'girlfriend', or amused that Goten was thinking about the future. He rarely had much knowledge of what was going on around him, and the fact he was taking the 'Apocolypse' thing semi-serious was good. So instead of choosing on of the emotions above, Gohan playfully smacked the back of Goten's head.

"Get back to work," he said with a smirk.

"Yes sir!" Goten barked. Gohan chuckled. The little demi still had his military training attitude from when he was learning the fusion dance during the Buu saga. Of course, Gohan wasn't there, but Goku had told him afterwards how Trunks and Goten were acting. Amusing indeed.

*~*~*~*

The upcoming Saturday everyone had anticipated. Well…teens had been waiting for it anyway. Every year, the first Saturday of March Break, Sharpner held a great party at his house. His parents usually left town for some vacation of some sort, and left him all alone. But this year, he cancelled out on everybody. People had asked why, but he gave no reply. Some thought he was wimping out because the Armagens had just had a party, and it was impossible to top theirs. Others thought Sharpner cancelled because Videl was ill and he never had a party without his best friends by his side. Either way, the teens of Orange Star High were greatly disappointed by Sharpner's announcement on Friday morning. The real reason behind his calling off of the party was because he needed that weekend to go over the plan with Sukoshin and all the others.

Saturday wasn't too eventful. Gohan spent lots of time training Goten and Trunks, in case their fusion technique was needed. He himself didn't need too much training because of the Mystic power-up he had received a year ago. Hell, he wasn't even allowed to go Super for fear of blowing up Earth. Of course, he had never actually tried it. He wasn't really sure what the results might be.

Monday, Chi-chi had allowed Gohan to take time off school to train. Everyone was squeezing in last minute training. Everyone was going to fight, if necessary, even Chi-chi, who hadn't spent the last 8 years sitting around the house all day. [1] 

Pretty soon, Tuesday morning arrived. No one, not even the all-seeing Supreme Kai Kaioshin, knew the results of their upcoming battle later tonight. It was like the Cell Games all over again. Waiting and patience was not a characteristic found in many Z warriors. Vegeta demonstrated it diligently that morning, as he paced the Capsule mansion, Trunks following closely behind. Anyone could tell the great Saiya-jin Prince was nervous. He did very little to hide his emotions these days. What was the point when no one was impressed anymore?

He wandered into the kitchen and sat down, reading a paper and sipping some coffee. Seconds later, he dropped everything neatly onto the table and wandered into the living room, where he watched TV for half a second. Then he was off again, to the gravity room, sparring alone. Moments passed, and he went to the front yard to cool down. Always behind him during these strange actions was Trunks, watching his father as if trying to find out a clue to something, or learn Vegeta's secret. He was been watching him for several days now, ever since Vegeta had suddenly decided to cook something for the family. Bulma had seemed mildly surprised, but not as surprised as Trunks had expected. Vegeta, the great Prince, his mighty father, took up a frying pan, some ingredients, and an apron, and just started cooking. What surprised little Trunks even more was that the food actually tasted really good. And there was plenty of it too! He had never eaten anything like that meal. Vegeta had mentioned it was a Saiya-jin recipe, only used by the royal cooks. 

Since that evening, Trunks followed him, hoping to get him to answer his question, one he had asked at the dinner table once they were done eating: Why? Why did he go through all the trouble of cooking such a fantastic meal? Of course, secretive Vegeta refused to tell.

After about 30 minutes of pacing, Vegeta finally realized he was being pursued. He turned and faced his son.

"Brat, why are you bugging me?" he groaned. Trunks blushed slightly.

"I was…you…never answered me about the meal…" he answered shyly. "It's not every day you just up and cook like that. In fact…you've never cooked before."

"I thought I made it perfectly clear I wasn't going to answer."

"Yeah, but I won't take that as an answer!" Trunks retorted, then quickly covered his mouth. "Oops…" Vegeta was silent for a moment, then grinned. The little hybrid did have some Saiya-jin in him after all.

"Fine…" Vegeta said with another mysterious smirk, a trademark of his. "I was worried…that we wouldn't make it out of this battle…so I thought you and your mother should at least try some of my cooking…should anything happen to me before I get the chance." Trunks was slightly shocked by his explanation.

'Father does care,' he thought happily.

"Now will you please stop following me!" Trunk regained composer and nodded, scampering off with a big smile on his face.

*~*~*~*

Krillin yawned deeply before stretching out the kinks in his back. After a long morning of training, he was sore all over, and needed a well deserved break. 18 and Marron were inside. 18 was teaching Marron about fashion sense, money, and malls, while Marron was teaching 18 how to cook, sow, and wash dishes, activities Chi-chi had taught her. 

Marron, for a 5 year old, was very aware of her surroundings and of certain situations. At least, she was now. She hadn't always been very observant. But after the Buu incident, her better side said never let that happen again. Now the simple thought of not knowing what was going on involving her parents scared her. The last thing wanted was to suddenly blink and find everyone gone from her life.

Krillin smiled at the sight of his wife and daughter bonding. He had been worried at first when Marron stopped playing with dolls, but he found that she chose a different path than a regular little girl. She was even showing interest in training, which baffled the ex-monk. Then again, the young girl was just surrounded by fighters of different species. Maybe it was a natural thing.

18 looked up when Krillin walked towards her and Marron.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Marron answered. "Mommy taught me about the joys of shopping with lots of money."

"Bulma called," 18 whispered to Krillin. "She wants everyone to meet at her place at midnight tonight so we can all go to the pyramids at once."

"Alright." Krillin shook his head sadly, running his fingers through his hair. "I still can't believe this happened to Videl of all people. I'm just worried things won't turn out for the better. She means a lot to Gohan, and he'd be crushed if something bad happened to her."

"You mean something _else_ bad happened to her, aside from her being brainwashed."

"Yeah well…you know what I mean. If she got hurt or…worse…" Krillin hadn't realized it, but Marron, with her head turned away from them, was listening intently. For adults, she thought, they weren't too bright. Most seemed to think children under the age of 7 were deaf or something and they said things in front of them, things they weren't supposed to say. Krillin and 18 did that a lot around Marron, and she logged most of this information in her head for later purposes. 

"So do we have a plan B?" 18 asked.

"I wasn't even aware there was a plan B."

"Then there most likely isn't."

"Sukoshin mentioned something about the hostess essence needed to power up Apocolypse, right?"  
"Yeah, a sphere object, blackish red." Marron said nothing as she sowed together a piece of cloth.

*~*~*~*

"Supper's ready!" Chi-chi hollered from the kitchen. Three hungry Saiya-jins came bounding past her and into their seats. Chi-chi smiled warmly at her family as she placed some rice and stew on their plates. She prayed to Dende, the only Namek she was fond of before he became Kami, that this wouldn't their last dinner together as a family. It just wouldn't be fair. She had lost them all at one point of another. Goku twice, in fact. Hell, she even died once herself, foolishly she might add. She still didn't know what she was thinking when she ran up to Buu and slapped him across the face. The only explanation was that she was blinded by rage.

Placing the plates before her family, she took a seat and took rabbit nibbles of her food, compared to the way the others were inhaling their food.

"Bulma gave us a call while you guys were training," Chi-chi stated. "She wants us at her place tonight at midnight. From there, everyone will head to Egypt."

"Cool we're going to Egypt!" Goten cheered. "I hope they have cool puzzles to solve, like in Ico!"

"Ico looked like it might've taken place in Central America," Gohan said quietly. "The ruins looked Mayan."

"Hey Chi-chi," said Goku enthusiastically. "Wanna do a bit of late minute training before we leave?" Chi-chi shrugged. She had already caught up to at least Tien. She knew how to fly, sense ki, and fire energy beams as well.

The rest of dinner was eaten in silence. There was nothing more to say.

*~*~*~*

Doom paced nervously back and forth across the bridge of her ship. The time was nearing closer and closer. She was nervous because she knew Sukoshin-sama was on Chikyuu, but the god hadn't made her move yet. That had Doom very distressed. What if she did something to screw it all up later that night?

"Doom, please, calm down," soothed the ship's computer. "Everything will go as planned. Not even Sukoshin can stop you now." Doom nodded in agreement with the computer.

"You're right," she murmured. "But I can't help but get edgy because of her. Why hasn't she made a move yet to stop us? What if she knows something!"

"Impossible. By my calculations, the chances of her discovering a way to stop the summoning are 0.00001 to nothing. She is a mere mortal."

"So are we! We won't be around in another 2500 years if this doesn't work! Our life span only stretches for 12 000 years! And we're already 10 245 years old." Doom sighed and took a seat in the captain's chair, just as Crisis and Peril walked in.

"We're heading in at quarter to midnight," Crisis stated clearly. "The Water and Terrain elemental cubes are in place and the force fields have been erected."

"How'd you deal with the meddling humans?" Doom asked. Crisis gave a smirk. 

"Killed each and everyone of them."

"Good. What about the main temple?"

"We need to be inside to put up the defences. At a quarter to midnight, we'll take Devil down to the Preparation Chamber and extract her essence for the final stage. Then we'll take her back to the Chamber of Power, raise the defences, and just wait. At the crack of dawn, the power of Orin and our birth systems will awaken Apocolypse." Doom raised a brow with a smirk.

"There should be some interesting fireworks tomorrow morning for the humans of this petty planet!"

*~*~*~*

Devil sat alone in her quarters. She had her eyes closed and was sitting Indian style. Meditation was something any well-trained fighter can recognize, and that was exactly what Devil was doing. She was trying to calm her inner, good side. Every since the Armageddon sisters had preformed that spell on her, she had been fighting an internal war with herself. On the outside, it hadn't be easy to spot, but she hadn't had settling thoughts since that Monday lunch time a week ago. The good inside her was desperately trying to claw its way out, but Devil wasn't allowing it. The imbalance was too strong. 

'What do you think you're doing?!' cried her good side, Videl. 'You're ruining me life!'

'What do you care?' Devil asked. 'I'm doing you a favour by telling off those wimps you call friends.'

'I can't believe you insulted Gohan's dad! He'll never forgive me.'

'It won't matter because he'll be dead anyway. And besides, everything I said was true, wasn't it? He did keep budding in every when you and him first met. That insufferable little menace, popping in at just the right moment to steal your glory! That's all he's ever wanted and you know it! That's why he began the rumours!'

'Are you blind? It wasn't him who started the rumours! The Armageddon sister started them!'

'Shut up or I'll snuff you out of existence!' Devil's internal argument was abruptly cut short when there was a knock on her door.

"What?!" she demanded angrily. Peril entered the room.

"It's time to shine your darkness," she said with a bow. "My hostess," she added. Devil got up and followed the blue-haired demon to the airlock bay.

From there, they left the ship, where it was parked and cloaked just outside of Cairo. They met up with Doom and Crisis at the base of the abandoned pyramids.

"Are we ready?" Doom asked. "Make sure you didn't forget anything."

"Mother and Father's essence is right here," Peril said, patting the pouch she was holding. Doom signalled them to follow her. They walked along the narrow hallway to the human-dubbed 'Queen's Chamber', and once in that room, Crisis and Peril each placed a elemental cube of their parents into either side walls where there were shafts. Once done, Doom trailed her fingers along the eastern wall until she found a protruding stone. She pressed it once, and the western walls suddenly began carving itself out until a human-shaped ditch in the wall formed. She instructed Devil to position herself in the outlet, where she said the essence-drawing ritual would take place. Standing upright against the western wall, Devil felt her energy being drained. A hissing noise ended the quick procedure and above Devil's head, a blackish red orb formed. Doom grasped it carefully.

"Good, now we head to the Chamber of Power, put this into the western shaft, place the last cube, and then wait." 

When they walked into the Chamber of Power, dubbed the 'King's Chamber' by humans, Crisis pulled out the Book of the Morning Star, which she kept in her book bag. 

"Raise the defences," Doom ordered.

Flipping to a page, Crisis read aloud, "_Now the hostess is in place, evil will now show its face. The hostess gives her mighty calls, rise from the ground, and from the walls."_ The ground beneath their feet began to tremble as the hall outside the Chamber of Power began to disappear. Walls in the corridor collided with each other while other walls moved out of the way and created misleading passages. Once this was all finished, a door dropped from the roof of the entrance, sealing the room shut, and a throne-like pedestal arose from the floor for the hostess. The dust began to settle as the girls lit a few torches so they could see more than a few inches in front of them. 

"6 and a half hours till sunrise," Peril announced. Devil sighed heavily and took a seat on the throne.

"I hate waiting," she muttered.

*~*~*~*

"Is one and all accounted for?" Sukoshin asked softly. Everybody had made it to Bulma's. Erasa had made an excuse with her parents to leave, since she was still living under her folks' roof. Sharpner needed no excuse since his parents were out on a vacation. The Sons, the Briefs, Krillin's family, Yamcha, Piccolo, even Mr. Satan were there. They were all discussing strategy.

"The best way to go," Bulma began. "Is to take an airship. The sisters with notice us if we all came flying in. We need this to be a surprise attack."

"She's got a point," Mr. Satan agreed. "I may not know much about ki, but it seems most bad guys can sense it pretty well. If I'm not mistaken, flying takes ki, and those dreadful sister will know you're coming a mile away." The others nodded.

"What time should we leave?" Krillin asked.

"Sunrise is at 6:34 tomorrow," Kaioshin replied. "We should leave at around 1:00. It'll take much longer to get to Egypt by aircraft. We need to be punctual about this."

"God I'm anxious," Chi-chi muttered. "This is the first time we've had an edge on the enemy. The first time we have a plan, not to just go rushing in, ki blazing. What if this doesn't work?"

"It'll work, don't worry so much," Goku said, comforting his wife.

During their hour wait, the kids were allowed a short nap time, only because none of them had ever stayed up past midnight before, and it was very tiring on them. At 1:00, Gohan's watch beeped. He checked, then looked up at the faces of his friends and family.

"It's time to go," he whispered.

*~*~*~*

[1] For all you original DB fans, you remember when Chi-chi was a fighter? She wore a little cape an' all. (Hmm…that's where Gohan gets it from…the cape, I mean) Also, she was the one who trained Goten in his early years, and helped him become a super Saiya-jin.


	12. Chapter 12

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 12

An engine roared to life. The motor of an airship started up and the airship carefully lifted from the ground, carrying at least 12 people. The sleek aircraft glided through the air, as if it were cutting through the sky, quietly. It wasn't a bulky model, like Bulma usually usual used for transportation. This ship was made with the same material stealth bombers were made with, dark as night to camouflage, and it was silent, the sounds of the engine and motor muffled out. Perfect for sneaking up on an unsuspecting evil.

Inside, the occupants shifted uneasily as one young teen in specific paced back and forth. His thoughts were on a particular girl, by the name of Videl. 

His love interest, in fact.

"Gohan, take a seat and relax," Sharpner ordered his friend softly. "Take it easy, guy."

"Gomen," Gohan replied sheepishly. If the others couldn't figure out he was worried about Videl, chances are they were blind. Gohan took the nearest seat next to his father. He was wearing his regular Saiyaman outfit.

Off on the other side of the airship, Sukoshin and Kaioshin were discussing strategy and tactics they could use in the event that Apocolypse was released. They conversation was cut short when a little blond girl with pigtails approached them curiously. 

She blinked a few times before saying, "What's a 'hostess essence'?" Krillin was on his feet in a split second.

"Marron," he scolded. "Leave the Supreme Kais alone. You should be sleeping right now."

"It's alright," Kaioshin said softly with a smile. "Marron, the hostess' essence is basically a replica of Videl's life force." Marron gave him a puzzled look.

"Let me try," Sukoshin suggested. "You like computers, right Marron?" Marron nodded enthusiastically. "Well look at it this way. Everyone has life essence. Well someone made a back-up copy of Videl's. And it's taken the shape of a sphere. This is for when they want to bring back their big sister and the back-up copy is going to give the big sister life."

"Oh…" Marron said thoughtfully. "I get it! But can you still use the ball after big sister used it? And where is it?"

"Curious little girl," Sukoshin laughed. "I believe you can use it afterwards, and it should be in the pyramid, west wall or something like that."

"Okay!" Marron grinned before trotting off. Sukoshin gave Kaioshin a smug grin.

"What?" he sighed.

"You gotta know how to talk to children," she replied.

Back with Gohan, he was on his feet again and pacing.

"Gohan, please stop," Erasa moaned. "You're giving me a headache!"

"Relax, kiddo!" Yamcha agreed. "Nothing's gonna stop us from stopping them!"

"Look, you'd be worried too if your best friend is god-knows where!" Gohan literally burst out, but quickly covered his mouth and lowered his voice. "Gomen," he apologized for the second time that night.

"You're getting high-strung," Goku commented. "Take a nap. Trunks and Goten are already fast asleep." Instead of taking his father's advice, Gohan approached the Kais.

"I got a question," he started up. "Let's say we get there and the Sisters are waiting inside. What then?" 

"No one says we have to destroy the shafts immediately," Sukoshin explained. "If we can distract them until the alignment is over, it would be enough and then we can deal with the sisters."

"And another thing! I need to know right now, and I want the truth…is… is she in pain?"

"No, the victims of Armageddon suffer no pain unless it's of mortal causes. Why do you ask that?"

"Because…" Gohan hesitated. "I think when the spell was cast…that was the day she told me she hated me…right?" Sukoshin reluctantly nodded. "Didn't you see what happened?…She was screaming so much, like she was in serious pain. I…I didn't know what to do…" Sukoshin looked down at her hands, as if trying to figure something out.

"She was resisting…" she breathed. "Videl was trying to resist the spell!" Gohan brightened.

"Really?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it! Only few have ever tried to resist the spells. It's very difficult for people with weak minds that are easily manipulative. Videl…must have one strong mind. In that case…"

"We can't kill her! She's still in there!"

"Gohan, you told me you were prepared to do anything to stop this summoning. It doesn't matter at this point…" Sukoshin bit her bottom lip, hoping she hadn't come off rude. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay," Gohan whispered. He sighed. "Last question. Why did they try so hard to turn Videl against me?"

"Beats me." Gohan looked up, as if rolling his eyes. "My guess is they need a focal point, someone who could bring out her anger. I guess that someone was you. Nothing we should dwell on." She stopped. "And Gohan…" She paused once again, placing her hand on the demi-saiya-jin's cheek. "Try to relax. Fretting over nothing will not make us reach our destination any sooner." Gohan nodded reluctantly and took a seat once again, this time staying put.

"We're almost there," Bulma announced from the pilot's seat. "Hold on!"

"Okay, maybe it does."

*~*~*~*

"I'm bored!" Peril complained. "How much longer?"

"How should I know?" Crisis growled.

"Well one of us should have brought a watch, smarty pants!"

"I didn't see you bring a watch, wise ass."

"Gee, I wonder how Devil's holding out." Both girls turned to look at Devil. She was sitting on the pedestal, eyes closed, and completely motionless.

"Is she alive in there?" Crisis whispered.

"Doesn't look like it…" Peril whispered back. The two edged forward cautiously, and with a careful finger, Peril reached out to poke Devil. Suddenly, Devil turned her head and nearly bit Peril's finger, causing both girls to squeal and jump back a few feet. Devil smirked and went back to motionless sitting.

"Guess that answers our question…" Peril gasped, still trying to gain control of her breathing and heart rate. 

"Will you two juveniles please shut up and leave Devil alone?!" Doom growled. "We don't know what time it is, so she's gotta stay perfectly still, in case sunrise is happening as we speak."

"Oh…" Peril and Crisis said in unison, finally understanding.

"Besides, that meddling Kai hasn't intervened yet, so I'm worried. We must be prepared for anything." Doom sighed heavily and fiddled with the end of her skirt. The sisters were no longer wearing their human clothing. They had slipped into something more…Armageddon styled. Doom was wearing a black halter top, black skirt, and black knee-high boots. Crisis was wearing a dark green tank top, camo jeans, and skater sneakers. Peril was wearing a light blue tube top, dark blue shorts, and navy blue sandals. All of them had a rocker look to them.

"Patience," Doom kept muttering to herself. "Just be patient… The defences are up… They can't get though… Patience…" 

"You know what I don't understand," Devil finally spoke. "Why didn't you kill that Saiya-boy when you had the chance."

"So glad you asked," Doom muttered. "First, we haven't killed anyone in 10 000 years, every since Apocolypse was sealed away. We've been trying to stay off all the Supreme Kais' radars. The last thing we need is to get caught and suffer the same fate as father. Killing that brat would have triggered a lot of people's alarms and we'd be caught within a minute."

"But you're strong than any of theses pitiful humans. Why worry?"

"Look, it's something called 'covert operation' It means stay low and be incognito. There would be so many enemies swarming over our heads too soon that we wouldn't be prepared. Not only would this planet's defenders come to the rescue, we'd have to deal with the Council of the Kais. They're the last people I want to deal with."

"You have a second reason?"

"I needed someone you could focus your anger at, so I could perform the spell. What better way to make sure the Golden Light is out of the picture than to make him your focal point?" Devil rolled her eyes and closed them, returning to her semi-meditation. Suddenly, there was a distance clang noise, as if something heavy was just dropped outside.

"What was that?!" Crisis panicked. Peril flipped open her handing palm-pilot.

"Computer," she commanded. "Bring up the main viewing screen of the front of the ship." A small image appeared on the mini-computer's screen. Nothing out of the ordinary was there. "Left side." Nothing. "Back." Still nothing. "Right side!" A small airship came into viewing. "Oh no…"

"What is it?" Doom demanded. Peril paled considerably and hesitated. "What?! C'mon!!"

"It's her…Sukoshin!" Peril gulped. Doom's face dropped.

"No…NO!! Not now! Not when we're so close!" Sitting on the pedestal, Devil took no notice to their panicking and urgency. "We're not ready! We can't risk getting caught so soon!…We'll hide!"

"Listen to yourself," Devil finally intervened. "You sound like a cowardly human. Don't worry so much. You have too much faith that those Saiya-jins and gods will actually get past the defences."

"You'd be worried too if you knew what we knew!" Peril whined. "You weren't there when that bitch turn Apocolypse to stone! She'll do it to us! I knew this was a bad idea from the start!" Doom instant slapped Peril across the face, causing the blue-haired girl to go flying back and Crisis flinch.

"Not another word," Doom hissed. "We're going through with this if it kills us." Peril pouted as she rubbed her injured cheek.

"Even if there's a fate worse than death…" she mumbled under her breath.

*~*~*~*

The Z warriors exited the airship and looked around the deserts of Egypt. 

"Cool!" Trunks exclaimed. The children looked excited, but the adults had solemn looks on their faces. Ahead of them, the cause of all their troubles, was the Pyramids of Giza. And just a few short miles away, an evil that had been sitting on Earth for over 10 000 years, the Great Sphinx. Gohan understood his dreams now. 'Apocolypse was always here, waiting and gazing east.' The Great Sphinx was always here too, also looking east. He winced. Then the other part of his dream was true also. He killed her. Videl's innocence. He let Videl die. This was all his fault. Just like how he let his father d…

'It's not your fault,' whispered Sukoshin's soothing voice in his thoughts. 'That's what they want you to believe. They want you to think this whole mess is your mistake. They've poisoned your mind. Don't let them get to you.' Gohan smiled and nodded.

"So we'll be needing to enter through the main entrance," Kaioshin explained. Gohan breathed slightly heavier when he caught a glimpse of how small the entrance was. Then he received a nudge from behind.

"Gohan?" Erasa whispered. "You okay?" Gohan nodded carefully.

"Anxiety," he mumbled as he trudged along with the others.

Sukoshin stood before the west wall of the smallest pyramid, looking for the entrance.

"It's sealed," she announced to the others.

"This one too," Mr. Satan called from the middle pyramid. "What now?"

"The entrance to this one is intact," Vegeta shouted from the Great Pyramid. "We'll just have to go though here!"

"They'll be waiting for us there," Krillin whined. Sukoshin examined the doorway to the main corridor except…the hallway was missing. It was supposed to go straight, but instead, it turned left immediately past the door.

"They've put up the defences," she murmured.

"Looks like we were expected," Piccolo grunted.

"I don't know the correct path, or even it there is a correct path," Sukoshin speculated. "The walls could be bugged, or there could be an endless maze of chambers and corridors." Goten's ears perked when he heard the word 'maze'.

"I can help!" he squealed.

"Not this time, chibi me," Goku half-heartedly replied. "It might be too dangerous."

"No, trust me!" Goten insisted. "I've been playing Ico for  nearly three weeks straight! I'm the master when it comes to mazes and puzzles!"

"He does have a point," Sharpner agreed, who had been to Gohan's house and seen Goten completely mesmerized by the TV screen, playing Ico non-stop.

"His skills could be useful," Kaioshin also added.

"Alright," Sukoshin accepted. "Vegeta, Piccolo, Goku, Gohan, and Goten, you're with us. The rest of you wait out here for our signal. Goku will call Bulma if anything happens." She checked her watched, which said 5:34am. "We don't have much time, so let's make the best of it."

"Later Trunks!" Goten sneered playfully as he followed the grown-ups into the Temple of Orin, while Trunks gave Goten the finger. Gohan was the last to enter, very unwillingly for some odd reason.

The inside corridor was dark, and the air stale. It wasn't meant for people to be casually walking through it, since the halls were very cramped and narrow. A part of the hall became wider and Goten quickly stopped them.

"It might be a trap," he stated simply. He scanned the walls with his eyes and spotted something on the roof, something like an indent straight across the width of the hall. He took off one shoe, tossed it in the middle of the wide hall and suddenly, a guillotine dropped from where the indent was and slammed into the floor. The others stood, wide-eyed as Goten walked into the room and retrieved his shoe.

"Told ya," he said with a Son smile. It took the adults a few second to snap back to reality as Goten climbed over the guillotine and onward.

"Goten, I'm sorry I ever doubted you," Gohan called to his younger brother.

*~*~*~*

Bulma tapped her foot impatiently. She had already set up the equipment and was timing the sunrise and the stars' alignment, so there wasn't much else for her to do. 

The other women were 'bonding' somewhat. Erasa was telling Chi-chi that her life goal was to become some prestigious lawyer, while Marron was building sandcastles with Trunks' help. 

Sharpner and Mr. Satan were hanging out with Krillin and Yamcha, learning about what it took to be come strong fighters like them. 18 was sitting a bit far from everyone else. 

She preferred solitude rather than company.

Bulma had nothing to keep herself distracted. She kept looking back to the horizon, where she could see the three stars along Orion's belt. It suddenly occurred to her that they could have simply blown up the stars, like they had destroyed the moon, but then she remembered that there were other life-forms living near those stars. Bulma sighed and took a seat beside her laptop, displaying the countdown. 

It read, "1 hour 12 minutes until stellar alignment."

*~*~*~*

"I'm sensing we're getting closer," Kaioshin announced. He took a turn left down a small, cramped hall. After getting lost, running into dead ends, and running into 14 more traps since they had entered the pyramid, they were getting clearly annoyed, and 14 times, Goten had to bail them out, making them thankful for bringing the little tyke.

"I never knew the pyramids were so confusing and full of mazes," Goku said aloud.

"They weren't," Sukoshin explained. "The Armageddon Sisters created these tunnels to confuse people and keep them away. They're also used as a defence mode, as you can tell from the traps. Obviously they're working. If we don't find them soon, they'll release Apocolypse." They stopped when it started getting darker. "Goku, could you make a ki light?"

"Hold on, I thought I heard something." Everyone remained quiet, listening. The sound Goku heard began to get slightly louder. It sounded like...heavy breathing. They turned in the direction the sound was coming from, all turning to see Gohan sitting on the floor, breathing deeply. "Gohan, what's wrong?"

"N...nothing..." he said in between gasps. "J-just keep...keep going...We have...to find V-videl..." The others stared at him with worried expressions, except Vegeta.

"Gohan, what's wrong with you?" Goku asked his son again. "Why are you breathing like that?" Gohan didn't say anything as he continued to hyperventilate. He looked up at his dad.

"It's...too...hot in here," he said, starting to panic. "I need to get out here." Goku gave a worried look.

"Kaioshin, do you think it's the Armageddon Sisters?"

"No, I'm not sensing any magic use," Kaioshin replied. He attempted to help Gohan up, but Gohan shoved him away.

"I need...to get outside!" he yelled, starting to really panic. "It's...it's too hot!" 

"Gohan, you have to tell me what's wrong!" Goku ordered his son. Gohan looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"I never told anyone..." he whispered. "I didn't want people to think I was weak..." He paused to take a breath. "I'm...a little claustrophobic."

"Come again?" Goku asked, scratching his head.

"It means he has a fear of small, confined areas, stupid," Vegeta barked.

"You are?!" Goku yelped. The teen nodded bashfully. "I...how did...you...uh...?" 

"You remember when I was 4 and Radditz showed up?" he asked his dumbfound father. Goku nodded. "When Radditz locked me up in that saiya-jin pod...it had some long term permanent effects. Now I get terrified of being stuck in small areas."

"All because you were stuck in a saiya-jin pod?" Goku asked.

"I was 4 years old!! It was traumatizing! Not to mention I could hear horrible screams from outside."

"My bad." Goku grinned. Vegeta growled and smacked the younger full-saiya-jin on the back of his head. "That would explain why you hate being in your room all the time and why you were always getting edgy back on Babidi's ship."

"I'm...sorry to...drag you...guys b-behind...I just…" He paused. "I think I'm okay now."

"Are you sure?" Sukoshin asked, making sure. "I don't want you collapsing, alright?" Gohan smiled weakly. 

"I'll live." They continued on until they reached what looked like the final hallway. The hall was wider than the rest, and at the end of it was a closed doorway.

"Hold up," Goten announced. He did his usual scan. "There's a camera over in that corner…but other than that, everything seems clear." Vegeta sniffed the air.

"It seems to easy," he grumbled. Goten was not done his scan quite yet, but his announcement that everything was clear made Goku take a step forward.

"Dad, wait!!" Goten yelled. But it was too late. Goten had spotted a trip-wire laser along the ground and Goku had just walked right though it. There was a low, creaking noise, and then, the walls seemed to shutter. Suddenly, hall they had just come out of was sealed off by a steel door and the walls began moving, closing in on each other…with the Z warriors caught in the middle.

"Shit!" Vegeta cursed, trying to brace the walls with his bodyweight. "Don't just stand there! Try to hold off the walls!" Everyone got on either side and began pushing, but it proved useless. Then Goku's cell phone rang.

"Yello?" Goku answered, acting like nothing was wrong. "Nope, everything's fine…Yep…Uh huh…right, got it…half an hour? Ya don't say."

"A little less talking, little more pushing please!" Vegeta ordered. 

"Listen, I gotta go…why? Because I'm about to be squashed. Later Bulma!" Goku hung up the phone and continued his fruitless attempt to force the walls back. Gohan's breathing got terribly ragged, his sense of claustrophobia getting worse and worse by the second.

"No…" he whispered. "I've…I've gotta get out of here! I've gotta find Videl! I don't have time for this!" He took a quick glance behind and spotted how close the wall was to him, causing him to panic-power up. His sudden shockwave of energy caused the doors at the end of the hallway to fly open. 

Not wasting a single second, he shouted, "Quick! The doors!" The warriors and two gods squeezed through the closing walls until they were all safely through the last hall and into what appeared to be the Chamber of Power. Just as they entered the room, the walls of the corridor slammed shut together.

It took a few seconds for them to clearly see their surroundings, but the room was a regular square with an extremely high roof. On the walls were lit torches, illuminating the small room. In the middle, sitting alone on a pedestal was…

"Videl!!" Gohan yelled. He wasn't sure if he should have been happy or worried about her. There was complete silence as the dark figure remained quiet. Then, as if she had found the words, she rose her head.

"You should have never come…" She slowly turned around. "I'm sorry Gohan…but you brought this on yourself." Gohan gasped slightly. "It's too late to run now, and you'll never be able to hide."

*~*~*~*

I'm such a tease! Evil cliff-hanger!! I'll get back to this very soon!!


	13. Chapter 13

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 13 (Bad Luck)

"I hope you know…You're going to die." 

Videl was turned around completely so they could see her face. There were definitely noticeable changes. Her eyes were dark and cruel, completely void of the ocean blue they once were. She had two piercings on her left eyebrow and piercing on both upper parts of her ears. What was worst was her smile, cold and fearless, like she had nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Gohan could not help but gasp and stare, lost in her endlessly black eyes. She had such an unnatural aura around her, black as the outfit she was wearing. From what he could see, she was wearing a black sleeveless vest-like shirt underneath a black, translucent sweater, and a black pair of baggy jeans that covered military boots. To top it all off, she had a tattoo on her right upper arm, she was wearing a dog collar, a spiked armband bracelet, and a belt with a dagger stashed in its sheath.

Her grin faded away into a sad look, a look of despair.

"Help me, Gohan!" she whimpered. "Please…" Gohan nearly choked, unable to resist her calls. He was stopped by Sukoshin's hand on his shoulder.

"We can't take any chances…" she whispered quietly to him. "Knock her off and I'll destroy the pedestal. Got it?" Gohan nodded. He looked to Videl, who was beckoning him with one finger, a pained expression on her face.

Just as he stepped forward, Goten suddenly shouted, "Above you!" Gohan's head shot up just in time to see Doom, Crisis, and Peril swoop down from the high roof and grab him in a head lock, while Crisis snatched Goten for squealing on them and Peril bravely stepped in front of Videl.

"Goten!" Goku yelled. "Gohan! Hold on!"

"Not another step, mortal," Doom threatened. "Or I'll kill him right now."

"Pity your brother has such a loud mouth," Videl sarcastically moped. "A few steps closer, and I could have killed you myself, Saiya-boy." Doom smirked as she tightened her hold on Gohan's neck, pressing her nails dangerously against his throat.

"No one moves an inch until Apocolypse is safely out of her statue, understand?" she ordered. She turned her attention to Sukoshin. "Well if it isn't Sukoshin-_sama_." She spat out the god's name like it was poison. Sukoshin did not waver against her taunts. "I never thought I'd see you again. What hole had you been hiding in for the past 10 000 years?" 

"I should ask the same thing about you," Sukoshin growled. "You three got out pretty fast after I disposed of your big sister. Nervous?" Doom snarled under her breath and averted her gaze. Gohan struggled for a brief second while she wasn't paying attention, but stopped when Videl put her dagger to his throat.

"No, no, no," she purred in his ear. "Perhaps you didn't hear Doom's warning, but if you escape her hold, not only will she kill your brother, she'll kill your father too." Gohan instantly held his breath. "That's better." Videl removed her dagger.

"Videl," he hissed at her. "You know this isn't you. You're not evil. We can end all this right now…Videl…listen to me." 

"My name's not Videl!" she roared. "My name is Devil Armageddon! Hostess of the Grand Sister, Apocolypse. Not you, or anyone else for that matter, are going to stop me from fulfilling my mission. And after it's all said and done, I'm going to kill you with my bare hands." Gohan couldn't believe his ears. Her little lecture left him speechless and stunned. This just didn't sound like Videl at all. Or rather Devil, now.

All was at a quiet, tense stalemate, no one daring to make a move… then…

_RING!!_

"Shit!" Goku yelped as the cell phone went off again. Gohan used this surprise as a chance to escape. He elbowed Doom in the stomach, got out of her hold and jabbed her in the back. Goten did likewise to Crisis and joined the others by the doorway. As if a wrestling had suddenly started up, a free-for-all royal rumble began between everyone. Goku, on the other hand, avoided stray fists and bodies as he answered the phone.

"Yello?" he said to the cell phone.

"Goku, what's going on in there?" Bulma asked. 

"Nothing much…" Goku ducked as Vegeta flew over his head. "We found the Chamber. We're inside right now!"

"Goku…time… stell…1…"

"Bulma, you're break up. Repeat yourself!" Goku sideways stepped as Devil was knocked to the ground beside him.

"I said 'YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!! THE STELLAR ALIGNMENT IN IS 1 MINUTE!!" Bulma screamed into the phone, making sure Goku had heard her this time. Unfortunately for him, since Devil was right next to him when Bulma delivered her message, she heard every last word.

"1 minute?" she repeated. She smirked and quickly jumped to her feet. Catching Goku off guard, she kneed him in the stomach and his cell phone went flying into the air. Devil caught it in mid-flight and yelled, "Thanks for the tip," before throwing it into a nearby wall, smashing the phone upon impact.

*~*~*~*

Bulma flinched when she got an annoying screeching noise, followed by static and a dial tone. She groaned and dropped her cell to the ground, disappointed that her only means of communication to the inside had just been cut off. But that female voice she had heard…she knew she had heard it somewhere else. It sounded a bit like…Videl, except…darker perhaps. Either way, she didn't plan on telling Chi-chi about the news. It would only worry the poor woman into greys. Bulma just hoped that something good would come of this. 

"Trunks!" Marron wailed from off to the side. "Mommy! Trunks blew up my sand castle!" Bulma groaned at her son's behaviour. May as well let 18 take care of it. She was the only other woman besides herself and Chi-chi that Trunks was terrified off.

"I was just playing around, honest!" Trunks yelped in his defence. "Really, I'll help you build another, okay?" Marron sniffed a bit.

"Let's go to the Nile instead!" she suggested.

"Don't stray too far," 18 warned.

"Okay mommy!" Marron cheered as she dragged Trunks to the river of the Nile.

"Why me?" he moped. Bulma sighed again. She looked back to the pyramids, constantly trying to convince herself that everything was going to be fine. She quickly glanced at the countdown laptop. It read, "45 seconds until stellar alignment."

*~*~*~*

Inside the Chamber of Power was complete mayhem. The Sisters were holding their own against everyone, while Devil was shoving her way past fighting figures, trying to get to the pedestal. Gohan spotted this from the other side of the room and began shoving his way through as well. Devil was doing a mental countdown of her own, so she would know when to be in place. According to her, there was 30 seconds left. 

Goku drowsily recovered from Devil's sneak attack and shook his head clear. Then he remembered Bulma's urgent message. He was too far to get to Devil or warn Sukoshin, but instead, he saw Gohan rushing through the small, crowded room, trying to get to the pedestal first. Both Devil and Gohan kept getting stalled by opponents in their way.

'Almost there!" Gohan thought. 'Damn it! Get out of the way, Crisis! C'mon, almost reached it!'

'Just a little farther,' Devil said silently to herself. 'Nearly got it!'

_10 seconds_

'Damn, gotta hurry!'

'Can't let her reach it! Gotta stop her!'

_5 seconds_

'YES!! Got it!'

'No! I have to get her off!'

Devil had made a final lunge for the pedestal and reached just a split second before Gohan had. With lightening-fast reflexes, she pulled her dagger out and slashed it across Gohan's face just before he reached her. The demi-saiya-jin yelped out in pain and fell backwards.

_1 second_

"It's time!" Devil called out.

*~*~*~*

Erasa's happy grin disappeared when she heard Bulma cry out with fright. Everyone rushed up to her to see what she was staring at. Her eyes were glued on the laptop's screen, displaying the words "O seconds until stellar alignment." 

The blood in Erasa's veins froze, as did her entire body. All were too stunned to do anything, all expecting the end of the world to happen. 

Just when the fear was starting to wear off, Erasa's eyes scanned the horizon…and she shrieked at what she saw.

A wave of pure white energy was racing towards the planet at an alarming rate, unstoppable by any means available. Erasa covered her eyes, praying it would go away…and Dende seemed to hear her prayers, for the light had died down and turned into three beams, directed at the pyramids. They disappeared into the temples, out of sight and all became silent once more.

"What in the world was that?!" Krillin yelled, still trembling.

"Was…" Bulma began slowly. "Was that the energy pulses Sukoshin told us about?" Everyone shrugged. Bulma growled as she turned east and saw the sun rising slowly. "I wish I knew what was going on!"

*~*~*~*

The Armageddon Sisters and the Z warriors had froze at Devil's outburst, while Gohan sat on the ground just in front of her, holding his injured face. 

Only seconds after complete silence, just when they thought nothing would happen, there was a shriek from outside, then the eastern shaft began to glow white. All of a sudden, a white beam of light came rushing out, through the elemental cube and straight at Devil. She let out a scream of what sounded like pain as the white light engulfed her entire body. 

The sphere of the hostess essence began to glow and react to the nearby energy and shot a red beam of its own at Devil. The sisters, gods, and earth warriors were flung backwards against the awesome power radiating from Devil. Her ki sky-rocketed literally through the roof, blowing away the entire top half of the pyramid. All were temporarily blinded by her shear raw energy. For a brief instance, it appeared as though Devil had red, translucent wings. Then, the energy beam did a total reverse as if it was being drawn back to the stars from whence it came. All this took place in a matter of seconds, and just as quickly as it occurred, it was all over, without anyone having a chance to react.

The smoke cleared and revealed Devil, unconscious, lying on the ground, but still, no one moved. Finally, Gohan dropped down beside Devil and supported her weak body.

"Is…that it?" Peril whispered. "Where's Apocolypse?"

"Do you think it worked?" Goku asked in a hushed voice. "I'm…not sensing anything…"

"Let's hope not," Goten murmured.

*~*~*~*

"Did you see that?!" Mr. Satan exclaimed. "That brilliant light…and the pyramid!…I hope Videl's alright!" The people assembled outside the pyramids had just watched three beams of light leave the temples, one blue, one green, and one white mixed with red. The beam of energy disappeared into the stars, then…nothing.

"We're saved!" Erasa cheered. "It didn't work!"

"Wait!" Chi-chi called. "Look! Can you guys see that?" Her eyes were fixated on something in the sky, around the same spot where Orion…had once been. There was nothing left of Orion's belt. Bulma gasped.

"That's horrible!" she cried. "Everything there is gone, according to the star charts on the laptop." She stopped when something else in the sky caught her attention. Another beam of light was making its way towards Chikyuu. Bulma panicked.

"Another one?" Yamcha sighed. "It never ends…" Instead of this beam of red energy heading towards the temples, it crashed right into the Great Sphinx. "Damn…" The monument glowed red briefly before shattering into thousands of pieces.

The Gods, Goten, Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and the Armageddon sisters flew up into the air for a better look. The light from the Sphinx died down and revealed a woman, standing where it once was. She had dark red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, black bat-like wings, small black horns, and a small, fire-like symbol on her forehead. This could only be assumed to be Apocolypse. Sukoshin gasped the sight of her, but did not back down or run.

No one moved, they barely breathed, let alone screamed, like so many wanted to. Gohan didn't even know what the woman look like, considering he was still inside what was left of the Temple of Orin, yet he knew that something bad was lurking just outside. Devil remained unconscious, still worn out from what she had just undergone.

Apocolypse opened her eyes slowly, for it was the first time in 10 000 years she had used them, and gathered her surroundings. The first people she saw were a few mere humans, cowering on the ground. She looked up somewhat and saw a few more humanoid creature…and her sisters. Then, of to the side, was a man dressed as a Kai…and Sukoshin. Apocolypse knew her well. Sukoshin was the one who sealed her up in the first place.

"Apocolypse!" Doom shouted from the sky. "You're back! After so long! We have missed you!" Apocolypse smirked and levitated off the ground, her wings flapping. She couldn't help grinning. Seeing so many terrified faces was far too much for her. 

"I see they know me well, Doom," she purred, her first words in along time. "You must fill me in on the details I've missed."

"Later," Doom replied. "First, we must deal with these pests. And especially Sukoshin. I'm sure you'll be wanting revenge, so we'll leave her to you."

"Very good," Apocolypse said, licking her lips. "Trivial questions can wait. I want to tear that wretched Kai's head off!" Sukoshin flinched. Her worst nightmare had come true. And it was all her fault.

"No…" she whispered. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. This can't be happening!"

"Got an plans now, genius?" Vegeta hissed.

"I'm afraid I don't."

"Then let me come up with one now. I'm used to Supreme Kais underestimating our strength," he shot Kaioshin a look. "so I suggest we fight. Maybe we'll fair better than you think."

"I may not know how strong you are, but I'm almost positive she can't be beat. She's complete evil and evil cannot be defeated! Only contained. Don't you think if she could be killed, I would have done it 10 000 years ago! But she's literally invincible!"

"This wasn't in the fine-print!" Goten complained. "What do we do now?"

"Stick your head between your knees and pray," Piccolo growled. "But I don't think Dende has time to listen to us today."

*~*~*~*

Marron poked her head up from the sand she was half buried under. When the Sphinx had shattered, her and Trunks had been sitting by the Nile, and had become buried in sand.

"Trunks!" Marron called. "Get up, quick!" Trunks poked out of the sand as well and shook his head a bit, shaking the sand from his hair. 

"What was that explosion all about?" he wondered aloud.

"I think it's the mean big sister everyone keeps talking about." She crawled out of her sandy tomb and dusted herself off.

"How would you know?" Trunks did the same, shaking off sand like he was a dog.

"I listen to people."

"Oh…well we better get back to everyone! They'll wonder where we are!" Marron shook her head furiously.

"No, we can't!" she protested. "Mommy told me if things get dangerous, she wanted me to stay hidden."

"Yeah, well hiding's not my thing," Trunks retaliated. "Besides, Goten and my dad might need my help!" Trunks looked over to where in the distance, four strange women were floating in front of his friends and family. "You stay here, got it?" He moved to get up, but felt something latch to his arm. Turning, he saw Marron in tears.

"Don't go, Trunks!" she pleaded. "I'm scared! I dun wanna be alone." Trunks was about to protest, but her tears stopped him dead in his tracks. He gave in. After all, she was only 6 years old.

"Alright," he whispered, settling down beside her. "I'll stay."

*~*~*~*

Gohan clenched his eyes shut. He knew something bad was just outside. Something dark, but unreadable by ki. Even though he knew it was Apocolypse, he still wanted to go and see for sure, but he couldn't just leave Videl all alone. As he held her fragile form, he began to wonder if the spell had worn off now that Apocolypse was resurrected and the hostess' duty was fulfilled.

Videl began to stir, startling Gohan slightly.

"Videl?" he said frantically. "Are you okay?" Suddenly, her eyes flicked open, and in a fraction of a second, she was on the other side of the room, while Gohan had a new scar on his face from her dagger.

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?!" she demanded, her dagger still brandished. "I meant what I said, Saiya-boy! I will kill you before noon!" She lunged at him, wildly swiping her knife at him, Gohan dodging madly.

"Matte! Stop!" he cried, trying to get her to slow down. "Videl! Stop!"

Up in the sky, Apocolypse cracked her knuckles menacingly as she advanced on the Z fighters.

"You don't know how much torment you put me through," she growled, her statement directed to Sukoshin. "I had to sit back and watch life pass me by. I had to watch this pitiful mud ball of a planet crawl through existence, defile my precious tomb, worship me for all the wrong reasons and call me an object that was owned by a dead king. " With each word, she cracked a different part of her body or stretched a different limb, causing the less braver warriors to shudder with fear. "Do you think I enjoyed my time here? Do you know how cramped it was in there? Do you know how much I suffered? When the followers of Armageddon showed up 100 years after my imprisonment and offered a solution out of that hell-hole, I silently accepted. I listened to them go over the plans they had for nearly 50 years, and I honestly thought my time to wreak havoc once more was soon at hand." She stopped, taking a moment to test her powers by charging up slightly. "I was so wrong. I had to wait another 9 900 years for my sisters to show up! So in the end, I'm not the bad guy in this whole misunderstanding. You are, Sukoshin."

"You killed thousands of innocent people!" Sukoshin yelled, her voice shaking slightly. "You're the murderer, not me!"

"See that's what gets me," Apocolypse said, clasping her hands together in deep thought. "How do you define the word 'innocent'? I was under the impression that murdering my father was a sin, and a sin on your slate makes you evil. You and the Council of the Gods murdered my parents! You forced my mother to commit suicide!"

"Someone's got a lot of issues," Krillin whispered to Goku.

"Enough of this stalemate," Apocolypse bellowed, having had enough of telling her life story. In an instant, she was in Sukoshin's face. "Boo." Sukoshin could not contain her fears any longer. 

She screamed. 

That jolted every fighter present into an all-out brawl. Vegeta, Piccolo, Goku, and Krillin rushed at the sisters while Sukoshin and Kaioshin fought against Apocolypse, leaving Goten to take the non-fighters to a safe distance away and Gohan defending himself against Devil's blind attacks.

With fists raised, Vegeta attacked Doom first, knocking her back with a punch. She recovered rather quickly and retaliated with a kick of her own, making Vegeta wonder how she could fight in such a short skirt. They exchanged kicks and punches, but Vegeta was being forced back. Distracting Doom with a ki beam to the left, he used this moment of breathing space to kick it up to super. Transforming in less than a second, he went back into the fray.

Goku grabbed Peril by her arm and swung her into the ground, following it up with a swift knee to her back while she was blinded momentarily by sand. In a quick movement, she was lying on her back, with Goku's knee in her grasp. She forced her energy into her hands and began burning away at the material of his pants. Goku yelped and backed off, patting the fire out with his hands. Commenting that it was a dirty trick, he produced a fire of his own and set it to Peril's hair, to her dismay. She ran around, trying to muffle the flames with her hands and finally extinguishing the fire. An extremely pissed look crossed her face and she was in Goku's face not a second later, scratching it up with her nails, yelling something about ruining her beautiful hair.

Piccolo and Krillin tag-teamed against Crisis, who was holding her own against both fighters. She caught both legs aimed at her head and lifted them both off the ground with amazing strength, them slamming them into each other. Piccolo was up first and whispered to Krillin to use the split-form technique. Nodding the ex-monk chanted a little phrase, as did the namek, and three more copies of Krillin and Piccolo were formed. Eight fighters in all, they began attacking Crisis at once. She seemed mildly impressed at first, but at the battle continued, she grew more and more bored. As a final attack, she grabbed one Piccolo's arm and threw him into the air, finishing him off with a dark ki attack. She snatched another Piccolo's foot as it was flying at her, and tossed him into a third Piccolo. Spinning around gracefully, she did a spin kick at one Krillin, sending him flying into another Krillin, and to finish them off, she rammed her fist through two at once. In a matter of minutes, only one Piccolo and Krillin remained.

Sukoshin, battered and bruised, fired a weak energy blast at Apocolypse, who didn't even make an attempt to block it. The god was much too weak from her slumber that she had no reserves left in her. Kaioshin, right by her side, was defending her as much as he defended himself. Apocolypse grinned cruelly and slammed her fist into Kaioshin, then faked to the right, catching him off guard, and fired a blast at Sukoshin.

"You can't protect her forever!" she sneered. "Give it up and I might let you live." Kaioshin then did something very un-god-like. 

"Screw you!" he snarled. "I'd rather die trying than take a coward's way of life." And he finished it up by spitting on Apocolypse. Sukoshin gasped. Apocolypse stared. Kaioshin paled as he realized what he just did. Instead of beating on the little god like he expected, Apocolypse began laughing, like that was the funniest thing in the world.

"Cute," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. "You must really love her, huh?" Kaioshin blushed, as Sukoshin turned red, even with the universe's greatest threat standing in front of her. "Look at it this way. At least you'll die together!" Sukoshin's eyes widened as Apocolypse began gathering energy.

"NO!" she cried. She collected what little energy she had and fired an impossibly strong ki sphere right at the demon's middle, sending the hell spawn flying backwards towards the river.

*~*~*~*

Goten ungracefully dumped Mr. Satan to the ground when he heard a child scream.

"That was Marron!" he yelled. Immediately, he took off, leaving Mr. Satan about a mile away from Cairo.

"Oh well," Hercule muttered. "Come to think of it, I'd better warn the people of Cairo!" Getting to his feet, Mr. Satan ran as fast as he could to the heart of Cairo. "People of Egypt!" he announced loudly. "This is the world saviour, Mr. Satan!" Residents opened their windows and doors at the sound of his voice. "Please listen very carefully! There's a dangerous situation occurring at the Giza Plateau! I need everyone to gather your necessary items and evacuate the area! I repeat, you need to evacuate the area immediately!" Disorder and panic broke out among the populace of Cairo. People, scrambling to get their things and leave, scattered the streets. In five minutes, the whole city was deserted. Mr. Satan sighed and rushed over to where the other non-fighters were.

"What was that all about?" Bulma asked, referring to the mayhem in the city.

"I had them evacuate," Satan explained. "That way the boys have a bigger fighting arena." Bulma nodded and turned her attention to the battle in the sky.

"I hope everything works out," she murmured.

"What are we supposed to do?" Erasa asked anxiously. "The first plan failed! We don't have a back-up!"

"Calm down, we'll think of something!"

"I don't want sound depressing or anything, but one planet can only have so many miracles. Then the luck runs out and something really bad happens, like now!"

"Stop! I said we'll think of something and we will!"

*~*~*~*

Marron shrieked loudly when a body hit the ground next to her and Trunks. The demi-saiya-jin leapt to his feet and into a defence position. The woman who had landed near them groggily got her feet, then glared at Trunks when she noted that he was in a fighting stance.

"Planning on fighting me, Boy?" she demanded. Behind her, Goten landed, along with Sukoshin and Kaioshin.

"Leave them alone, Apocolypse!!" Sukoshin yelled menacingly. "They're only children!"

"You think I don't know that?" Apocolypse demanded. "The younger, the better." She smirked maliciously at Marron, who trembled at the sight of such an evil-looking woman, and hid behind Trunks. Minus the wings, the horns, and the symbol on her head, she could have passed for a regular teen girl.

"Leave them be!" Kaioshin ordered. "Trunks, take Marron and run!" Trunks nodded and signalled Goten to follow.

"Not so fast!" Apocolypse growled. She fired a dark ki beam at Trunks, who wasn't prepared for such an attack, was hit by the full extent of the blast, knocking him to the ground. Marron went white as a sheet.

"TRUNKS!!" she screamed loudly.

*~*~*~*

Gohan flinched when he heard a terrible shriek from outside, the scream of a child. He could feel ki's fluctuating outside, but he truly had no idea what was going on.

He had spent the past ten minutes dodging Devil's attacked, who had succeeded in shredding a bit of his Saiyaman outfit. Devil, using his temporary distraction to her advantage, hit Gohan over the head with the hilt of her dagger, knocking him unconscious.

*~*~*~*

Another evil cliff-hanger! Don't worry, there're maybe three more chapters after this.


	14. Chapter 14

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 14

Gohan winced slightly as he came to. He tried to sit up, but he had a terrible headache. He felt like he had just been run over by a bulldozer. Struggling into a sitting position, he tried to look around, but his eyes weren't adjusted yet. Finally, a clear picture came through, and it was one picture he wished he had never saw.

The entire place was in ruins. He couldn't even recognize where he was. Buildings were destroyed and caved in, the only things left were huge pieces of rubble and walls that refused to go down. Gohan felt an incredible pain surge up. How many people had died? Why was he still alive?

"Finally up?" asked a taunting, feminine voice. Gohan turned to the source and saw Devil sitting on a broken wall just behind him. "God, you sleep long." It was true. The battle had started at dawn that morning, but now it looked about noon, although he couldn't tell with the dark, black clouds blocking out the sun.

"Where…am I?" Gohan asked cautiously.

"Hmm…and here I was told you've been here before as a kid," Devil mused. "Was that another lie on your part? You can't even recognize a city you've been to as a kid? You know I hate it when you lie to me."

"Where am I?" Gohan demanded a little more forcefully.

"You're in Cairo, you idiot! Are you blind or something?" Gohan froze up. _Cairo? _That was impossible! If this was Cairo, then…everyone in it was dead.

"You destroyed it?!" he yelled.

"Well, not exactly destroyed it. More like remodelled completely. Do you like it?" Gohan got to his feet slowly, glaring at Devil.

"Where are the citizens?"

"Y'know, the funniest thing was they were all gone by the time I hit this city. Must've been my father's doing." Gohan continued his harsh glare at Devil, although he was relieved no one had been killed.

"Where is everyone else?" he growled in a low toned voice.

"For all I know, they could be sipping martinis on an abandoned island."

"Where?!" Devil jumped off the broken wall just as it collapsed, and walked over to Gohan, grabbing the front of his shirt.

"What do you want to hear?" she whispered. Gohan swallowed.

"The truth."

"Even if it hurts?"

"At this point, the truth will most likely hurt as much as your dagger does." Devil smirked.

"They're d…" she stuttered on purposed. "They're de…" Gohan choked, knowing what word was going to leave her lips. "They're…de…desperately fighting against my sisters and Apocolypse." Gohan breathed a sigh of relief. Then she released his shirt and walked a bit away.

"You told me the truth would hurt."

"I said do you want to hear it, even _if_ it's painful. Don't you try to re-quote something I know I said!" Gohan eyed her carefully, watching her every movement.

"Why aren't you trying to kill me?" he asked quietly. "And why didn't you try to kill me when I was unconscious?" Devil stopped her pacing, and slowly turned around.

"Because," she replied. "I'd rather kill you when you're wide awake. You're not alert enough yet."

"Well then why'd you knock me out?"

"So we could relocate." Gohan hated to admit it, but she was starting to creep him out. The way she was pacing, the way she was actually talking to him in a civilized manner, not attacking him like a rabid dog, whispering when she was so close…Maybe now was his chance to tap into her good side.

"Videl?" he whispered. Devil shot him an evil glare.

"What have I told about-"

"Videl, listen to me! You're better than this! I know you can fight whatever evil Doom put in you! I saw you fight it before and I know you can do I it again!"

"Shut up!" Devil yelled, pulling out her dagger. She leapt at him. Gohan had been waiting for this and dodged just in time to grab her arm and kick the dagger out of her hand. Before she could retrieve it, Gohan blasted it to ashes. "You asshole!"

 She punched him across the face and kicked the legs from under him. Gohan landed with a thud on the ground, but quickly jumped back to his feet and ducked under another punch. Devil charged up a dark ki attack and shoved it into his face, blinding him for a second. That was all Devil needed to land three good punches to his stomach and two kicks to his ribs, breaking one. Gohan cried out and dropped to his knees, where Devil stood over him. Then he vanished from his place and reappeared behind her. But as if she was predicting his every move, she seized him by the throat just as he phased back in. Gohan powered up and kicked her in the leg, unbalancing her for a moment. He got out of her hold and backed up. 

"Videl, just stop for a second!" he yelled. "Look around! Do you really wanna say you're proud of doing this?" Devil growled in response.

"You're right," she sneered. "I'm not proud of this. I would have been proud if I had actually killed someone." Then Devil did her own disappearing act and appeared behind him, catching him in a sleeper-hold. That one she had learned from her father.

"Maybe I'll give you the worst demise ever," she purred. "I'll just strangle to death." Gohan could feel the air being pushed from his lungs.

"Videl, please hear me out!" he choked with his quickly diminishing breath. "You're not evil!" Devil tightened her grip.

"Keep talking, Saiya-boy," she growled. "You're just shortening your life." Gohan struggled, but still could not get loose. Slipping in and out of consciousness, he remembered a particular dream he had, for some reason, one of the last strange ones referring to Apocolypse and everything.

"I'll always remember you. I'll always remember our conversations. We always had the best ones." Her smile faded as well.

That was it! Bring up a conversation they had before! He briefly flipped through his memories, which was proving very difficult with the lack air his brain was receiving, and remembered a discussion they had about good and evil. Gohan looked up into the sky where he saw Apocolypse. He stretched out his sixth sense, but didn't sense any ki in that woman. 'She's completely evil, just like in my theory!' Everything was making sense now! But he was quickly losing breath, so he didn't have much time to play out his plan. 'Please, Dende, let this work!'

"Videl, don't you remember that talk we had?" he pleaded. "That one we had coming back from Blockbusters?" Devil seemed to remember, briefly loosen her grip.

"You mean the night of the party?" she whispered.

"Yes! That night!"

"The night you back-stabbed me!"

"No! No, no, no! Not that night!" Gohan's mind was running a mile a minute, which wasn't exactly healthy considering his brain wasn't getting much oxygen at the moment. "Forget what night it was…do you remember what we talked about?" Devil took this into account for a moment.

"Yes, you were babbling about evil and ki."

"Yes!" Gohan coughed as he tried to breathe. "Can you sense Apocolypse's ki?" Devil seemed to try, but nothing came up.

"No," she answered truthfully. "This better have a point because these are your last words."

"You have ki! That means you're not completely evil!" Devil took this into consideration.

"So?" she sniffed. "You think I don't know that? That miserable Videl keeps screaming in my head." Gohan froze. "What's your point, Saiya-boy?"

"Videl! Fight it!" he suddenly shouted.

"Will you shut up!" Devil growled loudly. "Why aren't you dead yet?!"

"If she's still in there, she can come back out!" Devil rolled her eyes and placed a hand over his mouth.

"Can't you die quietly?"

*~*~*~*

Sukoshin breathed heavily from the crater her body had formed. She had been lying there for many minutes, alone, and beaten. Apocolypse had left her to die and went human hunting. Everyone was beaten, but not dead. Only Goku and Vegeta remained standing and fighting.

It had been a long fight indeed. Majin Buu had arrived when he sensed Mr. Satan in danger. Everyone took their turns fighting, but somewhere in the middle of it all, they realized Apocolypse and her clan were only teasing them. That's when the battle turn ugly and desperate. Every plan they had been formulating failed in miserable defeat. It was impossible to track Apocolypse's movements because she had no readable ki. The Sisters were simply too strong and Apocolypse's power was just overwhelming. Now, only Goku and Vegeta were left, fighting in simple desperation. After peace had been restored for so long with many prices before, they weren't about to give up and let Earth be destroyed. They had simply come too far.

She could see them from where she was slumped. Doom was gone, hanging out with Apocolypse, while Peril and Crisis took on the only two Saiya-jins left. 

Sukoshin heard shuffling from outside the crater, and a second later, Goten poked his head from above.

"Sukoshin-sama!" he cried, dropping down to her side. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Krillin and I just got back from Korin's and we got some senzus! But only three! He told me to give one to you, one to Kaioshin, and one to Trunks!" Sukoshin smiled at the hyper-active child, who could prove time and time again how resourceful he could be. He hastily popped the healing bean into her mouth, and instantly her wounds were cured.

"Thank you so very much," she praised as she sat up. "We'd better find the others!" Getting out of the crater and back onto solid land, the two took flight and scanned the area for the others. Finding Kaioshin proved to be fairly easily. He was slumped on the ground beside the rubble that once was the Great Pyramids. After reviving him, Goten took off to the banks of the Nile, where Trunks was unconscious. He carefully gave Trunks the bean, and seconds later, the purple-haired demi awoke and sat up.

"What happened?" he muttered, rubbing his head, which had sand in it once again.

"That demon hit you from behind!" Goten exclaimed. "You shoulda seen it! It was so cool!"

"Shut up, Goten," Trunks growled, rolling his eyes. "What happened _after_ I was knocked out?"

"Sukoshin-sama attacked Apocolypse and told me to run with Marron. She mentally said that with you knocked out, Apocolypse wouldn't bother you. 18 thought Apocolypse hurt Marron, so she blasted her way through and was like-"

"Skip a bit, Goten."

"Oh, okay! Then Videl came flying out of the broken pyramid and blew up Cairo!! She looked really evil! You didn't see her when she slashed oniisan's face with her dagger back in the Chamber of Power!"

"Where're my mom and dad?"

"Buu and my mom took Bulma-san and Mr. Satan to the outskirts of Cairo last I checked, but I don't know where they are now! Erasa and Sharpner were supposed to be there too. Your dad's fighting one of those Armageddon sisters. So is my dad."

"Where's Gohan?"

"I dunno! He was in the temple, but when I looked for him, he was gone! Then Krillin told me we had to go to Korin's place and get some senzus. That was about an hour ago. We used the last one on you."

"How long have I been knocked out?"

"4 and a half hours."

"4 and a half hours?!"

"Yep!" Goten nodded enthusiastically. "C'mon! We gotta go!" Trunks nodded and flew to the sky. Goten followed suit and they quickly did a fusion dance. After their little light show ended, one person remained. He grinned and flew to where Sukoshin and Kaioshin were waiting.

"I'm guessing everything's alright then?" Sukoshin asked, eying the new warrior before her.

"Where's Apocolypse now?" Gotenks asked Sukoshin.

"I'm not sure. She hit me to the ground and took of somewhere."

"Just follow the path of destruction," Kaioshin suggested.

"Got it!" Gotenks said, grinning still. He quickly took of in the direction Cairo was.

"Don't do anything foolish!" Kaioshin called after them.

"Won't he need our help?" Sukoshin asked Kaioshin.

"You've never seen Gotenks in action," Kaioshin replied. "He can be very lethal…when he's not goofing around." Sukoshin sweat dropped.

"Dende have mercy on this planet." 

The two gods took off in search of Devil, where ever she may be, but Sukoshin stopped when she caught a glimpse of Vegeta fighting Crisis, in super mode. Then she spotted Goku fighting Peril, also super. And finally, it clicked. "The Golden light!" she screamed. "It's a super Saiya-jin!" Kaioshin came to an immediate halt at these words and he also came to realization too, as if a light bulb was switched on.

"Yes, that makes sense now!" he agreed excitedly. "But…which one?" He flipped through all the possible selections.

"Maybe Goku?"

"No…he doesn't have much of a connection with Videl."

"Then it has to be Gohan!"

"He can't turn super!" Sukoshin blinked.

"Why not?" she questioned.

"Gohan underwent some special training about a year ago with Old Kai. He gave Gohan a Mystic boost so he wouldn't need to turn super anymore."

"But it makes sense, doesn't it?" Sukoshin urged. "The Armageddon Sisters knew all along he was the Golden Light! That's why they turned Videl against him! If she killed him early, no one in the heavens would be alerted, where as if the any of the sisters tried, we'd know immediately. Plus, he's the only Saiya-jin who can't turn super Saiya-jin. That makes him special!" Sukoshin paused, smirking. "And doesn't it seem ironic that the hostess has a crush on the Golden Light?" Kaioshin had to admit, everything she was saying made sense.

"Still, the title is supposed to dictate the look. He isn't a super Saiya-jin, therefore, he's not the Golden Light."

"He's never tried turning, has he?" Sukoshin put a victorious smile on her face, knowing she had won this battle.

"What good does it make? Apocolypse had already been released."

"Videl might know something, like a weakness or some way to beat Apocolypse. She is the hostess after all, and Apocolypse's conscious must've passed through her at some point during the summoning." Kaioshin finally gave up and sighed in defeat.

"What if he destroys the planet?" he muttered as a last counter-statement.

"We'd better pray it does," Sukoshin replied. "Now let's go find him!"

"You can be so impulsive sometimes."

"The correct word is 'insane'."

*~*~*~*

Erasa shuddered as another cold wind blew by. Here she was, running through a sandy desert, in the middle of March, close to the equator, and it was noon, and she was freezing to death. The sun was completely blocked out by dark clouds, making the surrounding area ice cold. She stopped running for a moment to sneeze.

"Hurry, Erasa!" Sharpner called. "We've got to find Videl, before she does anything rash!"

"How do we know she's in Cairo still?" Erasa sniffed, rubbing her nose.

"I saw her take Gohan there. No doubt she's trying to kill him still." They rounded a corner of a broken building and looked around cautiously.

"I still can't believe that was her…" Erasa whimpered. "She looked so…evil, and that black haze around her-"

"Her aura," Sharpner interrupted.

"Yeah, that thing. It was pure darkness!" As they approached the next pile of rubble, Sharpner signalled Erasa to duck. Both teens hid for a few seconds. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"I think I saw her!" Sharpner hissed. Erasa crouched slightly and took a quick glimpse around the corner, then squealed.

"Gohan!" she shrieked, jumping into action. Sharpner nearly had a heart attack. He jumped up, trying to grab Erasa's arm, but she was out of grasp. Then he saw what she had seen. Videl was standing over Gohan, hold his neck as if she was strangling him. 'Screw the run-away plan!' he thought before running after Erasa.

"Put him down!!!" Erasa screamed at Videl. Videl smirked and did as she was told. Erasa dropped beside the unconscious Gohan, instinctively checking for a pulse and breathing. "What have you done?" She looked up at Videl, tears forming in her eyes. Sharpner was at her side, though not know quite what to do in the event Videl were to strike out at them. For now, though, she was silent, with the most odd look on her face, a look Sharpner did not recognize.

"Is he okay?" he asked, not taking his eyes off Videl.

"He's barely breathing," Erasa answered. "If we were a second later, he'd probably be…" She trailed off. Her attention flickered to Videl, who was yawning with a bored expression on her face. "Videl, how could you? You nearly killed him."

"Well duh," Videl replied. "That was the whole point. And please don't call me that. The name's Devil, and you'll do good using it." She smirked. "So Cry-baby, no longer playing to idiot role you're so good at?"

"That's not gonna work this time, _Devil_," Erasa snapped. "I know what you are now. Sukoshin-sama told me."

"God!" Devil cursed, throwing her hands into the air. "Sukoshin this, Sukoshin that. Will people please stop talking about her? I'm not interested!"

"Gohan!" called a voice above them. All heads turned to the newcomers, Sukoshin and Kaioshin.

"Well, speak of my name [1]," Devil snickered. "So you're the infamous Sukoshin everyone's been talking about? I don't think we've been formally introduced. I believe you know me as Videl Satan?" Sukoshin ignored her as she ran to Gohan's side.

"Wake up," she muttered. "C'mon, kid! We need you now more than ever!" Then, as if on cue, Gohan's eyes flickered and opened rather slowly. "Yes, that's right!" He groaned as Erasa and the female god helped him sit up.

"Why am I still alive…?" he muttered, annoyed. Then the surrounding area and the events of the past half-hour came flooding back. "Shit! Where's Devil?" He jumped to his feet, quickly locking eyes with Devil.

"Damn," she groaned with a snap of her fingers. "I was so close too. Just a few more seconds, and I would have gotten you." Gohan growled. Devil pretend to get bored and began examining her finger tips, when she noticed Sukoshin whispering something to Gohan, then the raven-haired teen turned pale and shook his head frantically. After what seemed like a millennia of more convincing, it appeared Gohan finally agreed to whatever Sukoshin was talking about.

"Oh Gohan?" Devil hissed. "What were you and the little god talking about?" She put her fists on her hips, as if she were scolding him. "What have I told you about talking about me behind my back, hm? You know I don't appreciate it. Just like the nasty little rumour you spread about us. Like how you told everyone I was the school whore or something."

"Don't you remember?" Gohan yelled. "I didn't spread those rumours!"

"Well then who did?" Devil asked, not impressed.

"The Armageddon sisters! They've been trying to split us up since the start! And besides, Erasa told you where I was that morning!" Devil scoffed.

"Cry-baby's alibi for you was bullshit! She was covering up for you! And as for the Sisters, you leave them out of this! This is between me and you, Saiya-boy!" She lunged at Gohan in fury. Everyone but Gohan jumped out of the way while Devil attempted to strike him down. He blocked her fist, so she raised another and tried again, but he blocked her other fist. Then, in moves she could no track, he was behind her, holding her arms in place. That's when she realized her mistake. He had been intentionally angering her so she would be sloppier with her moves.

"Now we have a chance to talk," Gohan whispered to her.

"I don't want to talk," Devil replied stubbornly.

"If you won't talk, then I'll just have to make you." The tone in his voice made Devil a bit worried. Her Videl side was telling her this wasn't like him at all. He was acting much colder than usual. She decided if he could make her mad, then she would return the favour.

"If you don't let me go right now, I'll make your death painfully slower," she threatened. "I'm not afraid of you. Give me the chance, and I'll break out of your lock."  Hiding behind rubble and debris, Sukoshin and the other three were praying this plan would work.

"I don't see how you can break free," Gohan sneered, something he wasn't exactly used to doing. "You're just a woman." 'Damn she's gonna kill me after this,' he thought to himself. But the plan was working. Devil was seeing red.

"You insufferable little insect!" she screamed, thrashing about pitifully. "I'm going to kill you!" Suddenly, her struggling ceased. Gohan waited for any kind of reaction, but got none. He made a quick eye signal to Sukoshin, who shrugged.

"Um…Devil?" he said cautiously. Then he heard her whine softly.

"Gohan…" she whispered. "Gohan, help me…" He felt his heart leap and ignored the warning signals Sukoshin was sending him.

"Videl! Is it really you?"

"Help me…" she pleaded again. "I…I can't breathe." Without even the slightest thought, Gohan released her arms. Devil stood for a second, looking as if she was about to collapse, but suddenly spun around and kicked Gohan in the face.

"Foolish boy," she spat as Gohan hit the ground. "Don't you know anything?! Never listen to your enemies' pleads! You're as naive as your pathetic father!" 

"Don't talk about my father!" Gohan growled, holding his injured jaw.

"No, I think I'll talk about him all I want," Devil scoffed, knowing she had hit a soft spot. "He's the reason you're here, so I have to place some blame on him. After all, if he was never born, you wouldn't have been born either. That's like hitting two birds with one stone."

"You don't know what you're saying," Gohan muttered, feeling pain flooding his heart. "He's saved the world countless times."

"Yeah, no thanks to you. You're always in his way, from what I heard." Gohan glared, unable to speak. "So after I'm done with you, I'll move on and kill your brother," she took a step forward. "And your mother," she took another step. "And all your little friends," and another step. "And then, your father," she grabbed the front of his shirt. "Just like how you killed him at the Cell Games," she purred. Gohan's eyes widened. 

His vision blurred for a moment with tears. He couldn't breathe and it wasn't because Devil was holding his neck. His throat felt like it had a large lump in it, as his heart felt like it was painfully bleeding. He didn't want to think about what she just said, but the longer he stood there, more time those words had a chance to sink in.

He snapped.

Letting out an almost primal roar, accompanied by blinding lights, Gohan began glowing and his aura forced back Devil, who fell to the ground. With tears streaming down his face and his ki sky-rocketing, Gohan began to change. Loose debris, stones, rocks, and rubble began floated all around him, snapping and breaking into small fragments. The ground was rumbling terribly as cracks formed beneath everyone's feet.

All around the world, people were feeling the effects of his power. Earthquakes began, volcanoes erupted, hurricanes took deadly turns for the worst, tornados occurred all over the place, and tsunamis formed off the coasts of continents. If one was not aware of Gohan's power-up, they'd think it was the end of the world. And in truth, it quite possibly was. Earth had never handle power of such magnitude.

Devil's mouth nearly hit the ground as she watched Gohan's hair turn gold and his eyes turned green.

"What have I done…?" she whispered, frightened more than she had ever been in her life. She knew about Gohan's Mystic power as well as any other Z warrior. And she knew that because of that, he was unable to turn super. But why was he doing it now? Had she pushed him over the edge? The only thing that kept entering her head was, 'I'm gonna die.' The planet was breaking apart because of the shockwave. 

Then, everything stopped.

The light show died down and the rubble around Gohan fell back to the ground. The booming sounds of thunder didn't register in Gohan's mind. His attention was on Devil, who seemed very pitiful at the moment, cowering away in fear. His transformation was complete and Chikyuu had survived.

Around the corner, Sukoshin and Kaioshin weren't aware of the events happening close by. They were holding hands, surrounded by a white, heavenly aura, and were constantly muttering under their breath a spell. This spell was like no other. It was a Supreme Kai spell…and it was the only thing keeping the planet together. Erasa and Sharpner stared in awe and confusion, their attention switching back and forth from Gohan to the gods.

"What are they doing?" Erasa asked timidly.

"I don't know-" Sharpner was cut off by the sound of Sukoshin's voice in his head. 'Goku. Dragonballs. Collect. NOW!!' While she had been delivering the message, the ground began to shake again and didn't stop until she was silent once more. And Sharpner knew what she meant. He didn't know much about the dragonballs, but he knew he had to get them quick.

"Let's go!" he said to Erasa, pulling her away.

"What about Kaioshin?" she whined. "And Sukoshin? And Gohan! We can't leave them here!"

"Gohan can take care of himself," Sharpner explained, still running with Erasa in tow. "And the gods need complete concentration! I think they're trying to save the planet for falling apart." Erasa's eyes widened, but she did not scream. Instead, she nodded and ran with Sharpner.

*~*~*~*

"What was that?!" Goku yelped. The battle between him and Peril stopped all at once when they felt a tremendous power surge up. All around then, strong winds had picked up and lava occasionally spewed up from the cracks in the ground. "It…it felt like Gohan. But…"

"He's ascended," Peril whispered, unconsciously messing with her now burnt and short hair. "How…?"

"Are you sure?" Goku asked, not caring she was the enemy.

"Positive," Peril replied with a nod. "It was the Golden Light the Book prophesied about. The Light can destroy the hostess' evil."

"Yeah, if he doesn't destroy the Earth!" Goku yelled. "He's not supposed to be able to do that!"

"Kakorrot!" yelled a voice. They turned to see Vegeta and Crisis flying towards them. "You most certainly must have felt that."

"Who cares about feeling that power," Crisis interrupted. "Look around! This place is about to blow sky-high! It's about to share the same fate as Planet Namek!"

"Then why hasn't it happened yet?" Peril whined. "I wish I never came here! I wish I didn't listen to Doom and her big, ugly mouth."

"Shut up!" Crisis and Vegeta yelled at the same time.

*~*~*~*

Gohan's turquoise eyes watched Devil's every move. She stumbled to the ground, rubbing a ripped spot on her shirt. She was watching Gohan closely as well. Of course, both were wondering why Chikyuu was not destroyed, but at the moment, it was the least of their worries.

"No one," Gohan spoke in a deep voice. "And I mean _no one_ talks about my father like that." He frowned deeply. "You're going to pay for those words." Devil gasped, backing away slightly.

"You can't…you can't kill me," she squeaked meekly. "I'm still Videl! You'd be killing her too!" Gohan smirked cruelly, totally opposite of his calm, laid-back characteristics.

"I didn't say I'd kill you," he replied. "I'm just going to beat you up. Really…really…badly." Devil stumbled again as his words sunk in.

'This can't be right…' she thought. 'Something's wrong. But I don't have time to think about it!' And with that, she took off in a blind run to find Apocolypse. But she didn't get very far.

She was slammed to the ground in an instant, and rolled to the left, narrowly missing Gohan's fist. Scrambling to her feet, she was caught off guard by his leg, which swept her feet from under her. She did a one hand cartwheel to avoid his next attack and fired a dark ki sphere at him. It hit him dead on…but he did not falter. In blind desperation, she charged him, then phased out and behind him, catching him by his throat. Gohan half-smirked and flipped Devil off his back. She landed on one knee and was unable to defend very well when he began lashing out.

Finally, getting back to her feet, she threw a clumsy punch at Gohan, which he caught with ease. She weakly threw another punch, which was also caught.

"Please," she whispered. "Don't kill me…" Gohan didn't flinch or move.

"Fool me once, shame on you," he murmured. "Fool me twice, shame on me." His smirk disappeared. "You're pleaded won't work this time. I won't stop until I see ocean blues in your eyes again."

"I can't bring her back!" Devil cried, finally giving up the tough-girl act. "I already suppressed her! Only the Armageddon sisters can set her free." Gohan's eye twitched.

"What do you mean?" he asked softly.

"I mean there's so little of her left, she can't be brought back by conventional means! She doesn't remember you, I hope you know! Her memories were wiped! She barely exists!" Those words triggered something in Gohan's conscience. The last Apocolypse dream he had…

_"Will you kiss me one last time?" She tried to smile once more. "Maybe I'll remember more."_

Was that the key? Her defences were all down. She was paralysed with fear because of his super Saiya-jin form. But did that mean he had to actually kiss her? Maybe it was the only way to bring her back with her memories intact. It was a long shot, and if it didn't work, he could be earning himself a huge slap. But it was the only thing he had to go on right now that didn't involve beating her to a bloody pulp.

"Videl…" he whispered. "Please forgive me." And with that, he leaned in rapidly, closing the gap between their faces, and kissed her. Devil's eyes widened, but slowly, they became droopy and she closed them without protest. The kiss was sweeter than imagined. Gohan had almost recoiled because her lips were so cold, but now they were warming up. Her whole body was returning to normal temperature. He slowly released her fists and moved his hands to her face. 

When he felt enough time had passed, he pulled back and looked at her face. The colour had returned, but her eyes were still closed. 'Please let this work…' he thought silently.

"Gohan…" she whispered delicately. Her eyes opened and shone a beautiful, brilliant blue, bright as the morning sky. "Where am I?" Gohan broke down and hugged her with all his might.

"Thank Kami you're back!" he cried. "God, I've missed you!"

"Uh…Gohan? Need a little air here," Videl replied, tugging at his arms somewhat. Gohan quickly pulled back, apologizing.

"I still can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "It's really you!"

"What?" Videl laughed. "You make it seem like you haven't seen me in weeks or something!" Gohan froze.

"Don't you remember?" he asked quietly.

"Remember what?" Videl tilted her head to the side. "C'mon, Gohan! What in the world are you talking about?" Gohan felt like he could cry. She didn't remember anything! That meant she didn't know about Apocolypse or the demon's weakness…or the kiss they just shared.

"Uh…yeah," he stuttered, feeling quite sad. The dream told him she'd remember all. But she didn't have a clue what was going on around her. Maybe it was for the better. He was sure she would feel awful if she knew about the things she had said to him, to Erasa, Sharpner, and her father. She would especially feel horrible if she knew she had been trying to kill him for the past five and a half hours. "I'll explain all later. I gotta-"

"Oh my lord!" she suddenly yelled. "What happened to your face?!" She quickly examined the scars on his face from her dagger. "You're bleeding. We've gotta get you a senzu."

"I'll live, trust me."

"Who did this to you?" Videl asked, concerned. Gohan nearly choked. What now? He didn't want to lie to her, but he didn't want to say 'You did it.' Fortunately, he was saved when a loud thunder-like noise was heard, followed by an explosion.

"I really gotta go!" Gohan insisted. 

"What's going on?" she demanded. "Why are you super? 'How' is a more appropriate question! And why's the sky so dark? What was that noise? Where is everyone? What-"

"I said I'll explain later!" Gohan vowed. "Just…stay here! I'm not sure how dangerous it is, but I don't want you getting hurt."

"Getting hurt?!" Videl yelled. "I can fight, remember, genius?" Gohan winced.

"Please Videl…" he pleaded. Videl's expression softened and she gave in.

"Fine…but you'll come back, right?"

"I will!" Gohan said with a nod and took to the skies toward the source of the explosion.

In seconds flat, he arrived at the scene of the crime. There was a large pile of rubble, Apocolypse was hovering above, with ever-faithful Doom by her side. Then, Goten and Trunks emerged from the rocks.

"That was a dirty trick!" Goten complained, holding his head.

"Yeah, what's the big idea?" Trunks agreed, equally disgruntled and in pain. "I've seen Majin Buu sucker-punch people, but what you did was in a class all on its own!" Gohan dropped beside them without a single word.

"Oniisama!" Goten cheered at the sight of his big brother. "Where have you been? And how'd you turn super?"

"No time to explain," Gohan replied, his eyes never leaving Apocolypse. This was his first real glimpse of her, so he was getting every detail, looking for possible weaknesses.

"So you're the Golden Light," she laughed. "I was expecting something a little more…impressive, but you'll do. Just try not to destroy Chikyuu while we're fighting."

"What were you two doing?" Gohan asked his brother.

"We were fighting her!" Goten replied.

"How?"

"How else, stupid?" Trunks sighed. "The fusion dance, remember? We can turn super 3 if we wanted to, but dumb bitch over there knocked us apart!"

"Watch you're language," Gohan scolded, while Trunks rolled his eyes. "Clear off, okay? Go find your dad and mom. We need dragonballs, pronto!" The two boys nodded and took off, leaving Gohan alone with Apocolypse and Doom.

"What have you done with Devil?" Doom demanded. Gohan smirked slightly.

"I set her free," he replied. Doom scowled.

"You what?!"

"I said I set her-"

"I know what you said!" Doom's face contorted to an ugly grimace. "You'll pay! She may not have been blood, but she was an Armageddon!"

"Calm down, sister dear," Apocolypse said smoothly. "So what if an outsider was taken away. No biggie. Clearly we need no humans in our clan." Doom hesitated, but then agreed.

"Yes, you're right," she whispered. "Just an outsider…"

"Now what do you say we get down to business, hm?" Instinctively, Gohan got into a defence position. "Sit back, Doom. I'll show you how to eliminate pests like this one." Doom rolled her eyes, apparently not interested, and took off in search of her own prey. Apocolypse sprung forth from her spot, a fist aimed Gohan's way.

Dodging with lightning-quick reflexes, Gohan returned with his own punch, which was countered. For possibly 10 minutes, they traded fists, Apocolypse landing a majority of hers. They got air born and feeling a little bold, Gohan fired a beam at her. It looked as if it was going to hit, but suddenly, the beam disappeared with a flash.

"-the hell?" Gohan said, puzzled.

"Absorption, kid," Apocolypse replied dusting off her outfit. "Any gold light you send my way, I can absorb it in a second. Tough break, huh? And speaking of break…" She raced forward, landing a painful kick to Gohan's right arm, breaking it on impact. Gohan screamed out and nearly fell out of the sky as he dropped out of super mode. He grinded his teeth, suppressing his pain as best as possible.

"Not…again…" he groaned. "Why does someone always have to injure my arm in the most painful way?" A shadow covered his face. He timidly looked up at Apocolypse's looming figure. She sympathetically grasped his unharmed arm and patted it, as if she were comforting him.

"Poor mortal…" she whispered, taking his hand into hers. "You simply do not know how fortunate you are…and yet how unlucky you are for crossing my path. Most never live too long, but you…I like you." She ran her nails down each finger on his hand, making him shiver. "That's why killing you is going to be so un-fun." Without warning, she grabbed his index finger and bent it backwards. Gohan's eyes clenched tightly together and his jaw seemed glued together, but he would not cry out. "Oh c'mon," Apocolypse complained. "Scream for me. I wanna hear your voice." Opening one eye, Gohan glared at her.

"Fuck you…" he muttered. Now that was something totally against his personality. But at the moment, he was in a great deal of pain with the universe's biggest evil breathing down his neck. He had every right to be pissed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, little brat," Apocolypse scolded. "Don't make me punish you. You won't enjoy it as much as I will." Another quick grab and another bend backwards, and Gohan now had two broken fingers. But he still would not cry out. "Come on!" Apocolypse yelled. "I'm getting bored! If you don't scream, then I'll just have to find someone who will. Say…your little girlfriend…Videl is it?" Gohan's eyes enlarged.

"NO!" he shouted. "Please, don't!"

"Then scream," Apocolypse scowled. She held his middle finger threateningly, but Gohan's pride would not allow him to yell out. "Scream, dammit!" She gripped his finger a little tighter. "It's either you or your girlfriend." Suddenly, after the sound of a violent kick, Gohan found himself about a mile away from Apocolypse. He was in the same place, but Apocolypse had been kicked somewhere else by…Chi-chi of all people.

"Gohan, are you alright?" she asked, examining every wound. Gohan tried to speak, but his voice got caught in his throat. Instead, he hugged his mother with one arm as a form of thanks. "It's okay…We've gotta get you outta here! C'mon…" Tenderly, Chi-chi helped him off the battlefield and into safe grounds. "What happened?" she finally asked.

"I…Videl…she's normal…" Gohan stuttered, unable to clearly think because of all the pain he was in.

"Normal? You mean you got her back?" Gohan nodded weakly. "Thank goodness! Where is she now?" Gohan would have pointed but both arms were feeling a little weak. "Forget that. Do you have any senzus?" He shook his head no. "It's alright, sweetheart. We'd better get you to Dende's then."

"No…" Gohan croaked. "…Can't leave…Apoco…get…I…"

"Shh…" Chi-chi whispered, placing her fingers to his lips. "If not Dende's, then what?" He didn't say anything. Carrying him as best as she could, the mother warrior began flying low to the ground to avoid detection. Then she spotted Videl sitting by herself beside a half-destroyed wall.

"Videl?" Chi-chi called. Videl's head shot up and she nearly mauled Chi-chi with hugs, but saw the condition Gohan was in.

"Omigod!" she shrieked. "What happened?!"

"He took on Apocolypse…" Chi-chi replied, laying him down. "Dende's is too far, now that I think about it." She placed her soot-covered hands over her forehead. "What are we gonna do?"

"Wait…Apocolypse?" Videl asked.

"Don't you know?" Chi-chi questioned.

"Look, the last thing I remember is that little fight me and Gohan had. The rest is just a blur. He won't tell me what happened, so I'm out of this little loop." Chi-chi hesitated.  
"Videl dear…" She didn't get a chance to even start as Gohan began groaning, trying to sit up. "Honey, lie back…"

"Lie?" Videl repeated as she concentrated. "Lies…too many…lies…" Suddenly, a white flash blinked in her mind. And then another flash appeared, like lightening. And with each flash, a new memory appeared in her mind. Things she didn't remember before began playing in her head. She had brief glimpses of the fight with Gohan, then trying to strangle him in the medical wing at school. She remember telling her father off, screaming at Erasa on the phone, calling her a cry-baby, insulting Gohan's dad. She recalled everything the Armageddon sisters told her, how she was the hostess to a special entity, how her soul could unlock Apocolypse from her containment…how Videl agreed to it all. But the thing that bothered her most was how cold she acted to Gohan. 

As more memories flooded back to her, she slowly raised a hand to her mouth, traumatized at what her memories were telling her. He turned Super because of her. She pushed him too far. The scars on his face…it was her fault. 

She was trying to kill him.

"It's all my fault…" she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "I nearly killed him…I almost killed him!" She grabbed her head. "Apocolypse…she's here because of me!" Chi-chi didn't say anything. "That's why Gohan wouldn't tell me who hurt him. It was me!"

"Videl…" Gohan murmured from his laid-back position on the ground. "It's not your fault…" Videl felt her breathing become uneven. 

"Of course it is! The Earth is about to be destroyed and it's all my fault!"

"No…please don't…blame yourself…" Gohan began dozing off.

"Gohan?" Videl wept, placing her hands on his chest. "Please, wake up! Oh god…this whole mess really is my fault…I'm a dokufu! [2]"

"Videl, hon," Chi-chi piped in. "It wasn't you who did all this. It was a different woman named Devil. She was the one who hurt Gohan. She was the one who released Apocolypse. You had nothing to do with it!" Videl sniffed as she wiped away the tears that refused to stop coming.

"If that's true…" she mumbled bitterly. "Then why does my heart hurt so much? Why do I share the memories as this so-called 'different woman'? Why have I been permanently scarred because of what I've done?"

"The hurt will always be there," Chi-chi explained. "But as long as we forgive you, it shouldn't matter."

"But it does matter! How could you all possibly forgive me for letting the world die?! How can you all forgive me if you're all dead?!" Then Videl quickly covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Chi-chi replied, trying to smile warmly. "Things…are just so unfair right now…" She sniffed as her voice cracked. "I know how you feel…this feeling of helplessness, not being able to affect change when you need to most. Hell, it happens to me all the time! I've simply learned to cope. And I'm sure you'll learn in time that you're not at fault in this situation. You really had no choice in the matter! Please…just don't blame yourself…" Then there was a mild explosion in the distance, then another and another, making Chi-chi jump to her feet. "Oh no, she's coming back!" Videl turned to the source of each blast and got to her feet as well, moving towards the source. "Where are you going?"

"To correct my mistakes…" Videl replied. "Even if it means my life." Chi-chi gasped.

"No! Don't go, Videl! We can figure out another way! Just don't go!" She grasped the young teen's arm. "Gohan would never forgive me if I let you walk off…if something happened to you…" Videl sighed.

"I must leave," she responded solemnly. "I'm the only one who can stop her."

"What do you mean?" Chi-chi questioned, quite puzzled. 

"I was in her mind!" Videl said with a gesture. "I know her conscious, her memories…her weakness." She looked at the horizon. "I know I can beat her."

*~*~*~*

[1] "Well, speak of my name." Sorta an ironic gag. When Devil's says that, it really means "speak of the devil." Get it? Oh boy, I try too hard.

[2] Dokufu means evil woman.


	15. Chapter 15

Legacy of Chaos

Chapter 15

Goku's eye bulged out when he saw what had happened to his oldest son. He was about to intervene, but Chi-chi beat him to the punch, knocking Apocolypse away by surprise. Then mother and son dropped to ground level and disappeared into the ruin city, masking their ki.

"Goku!" shouted a voice.

"Dad!" shouted another voice. Goku tried to turn to both voices, but ended up spinning in circles. Finally, Goten, Trunks, Erasa, and Sharpner made the scene.

"We need your help!" Trunks and Erasa yelled at the same time. Goku rubbed his head, looking back to the destroyed city where his wife and son were hiding.

"Uh…everyone needs my help right now!" he said, perplexed. Then the demi-saiya-jins and teen humans began talking at once, causing more confusion. "Hold on! One at a time!"

"We need the dragonballs!" Erasa yelled.

"Gohan needs your help!" Goten shrieked.

"Sukoshin said something about Dende!" Sharpner called.

"Apocolypse beat us up!" Trunks complained.

"WHAT?!" Vegeta roared from the back. "Someone, I don't care who, but someone better explain what's going on here, right now!"

"Gohan became the Gold Fighter again," Sharpner explained. "And it started tearing Chikyuu apart. But those two gods started doing a spell and it's holding Earth together, but Sukoshin-sama said we have to collect the dragonballs!"

"That's what Gohan told us!" Goten agreed. "He took on Apocolypse!"

"I saw that from here," Goku cut in. "Let's just say he won't be writing anything for a while." Erasa shuddered. "So basically, we need to dragonballs to wish for the Earth to repair itself."

"Uh…I guess," Sharpner replied, still unsure how these 'dragonballs' were supposed to help.

"Where's Bulma?" Goku enquired.

"I dunno!" Goten whined. "She was supposed to be with Mr. Satan and Buu!"

"It's going to be damn near impossible to find them," Goku groaned. "Well where's Krillin and the others?"

"Krillin took Marron and 18 to the airship after 18 got beat up," Trunks responded. "Yamcha's there too."

"Well then Bulma's probably there too. We can get the dragon radar from her!"

"She doesn't have the dragon radar on her, stupid!" Trunks yelled. "It's at home!"

"Damn!" Goku cursed. He levitated into the air. Putting his fingers to his forehead, he focused on Dr. Briefs' ki signal and vanished.

"Whoa!" Erasa awed. "How'd he do that?"

"Instant Transmission," Trunks replied, bored.

"He'll be back…" Vegeta snickered. "He always does."

*~*~*~*

Videl scanned the horizon in search of Apocolypse. As she did so, her eyes skimmed over all the destruction she had caused. Cairo and everything in a 20 mile radius. All her fault…

She blinked back her tears as images of Gohan's scarred face came to mind. It was horrifying, now that she could remember every detail. It had been like watching herself from the inside, doing all those horrible things. She was in there, having an out-of-body experience, unable to control anything she did. And that feeling of helplessness scared her.

And to think, this all could have been prevented had she not blew up at Gohan and over-reacted about the Armagen party incident.

But she had a chance to redeem herself for her misdeeds and foolish actions. She now knew how to stop Apocolypse. She had one chance to try, and she sure as hell wasn't going to blow it.

Remembering back to a conversation she had with Goku, he had explained everything about how a Genki Dama works. The Spirit Bomb was a collection of positive energy surrounding the user. Depending on how strong the need to defeat whatever evil was, the Genki Dama could be the best attack one could depend on. It was drawn to evil like a magnet and vaporized it in seconds. But Goku's Genki Dama had never encountered a being of pure evil in its essence. Pure evil worked differently than imbalanced evil did, this much Videl knew. She also knew that Apocolypse, being pure evil, drew in gold and pure white light, absorbing it as quickly as the Genki Dama was supposed to work. Therefore, Goku's Genki Dama would not work in this awkward situation. Nothing pure good would work. It would get absorbed into Apocolypse. So the only option was fight fire with fire.

Use evil against evil.

And Videl had plenty inside her at the moment.

She knew much about the Genki Dama, about how it drew in positive energy. Well she had to somehow reverse that effect. She had to draw in dark energy in order for her attack to work. 

Her own little Kuro Dama [1].

Videl took a deep breath as Apocolypse destroyed things in the distance, trying to find her opponents and the one who knocked her away. The demoness was far from pissed. She was beyond pissed. Videl sucked in her breath sharply when the ground began to rumble. She didn't know how this was going to work exactly. Apocolypse might blow her concentration…or worse, attack her before she's near done the Kuro Dama.

Timing was everything.

Videl raised her arms high into the air, posing in a way similar to Goku when he prepared his Genki Dama. She closed her eyes and focused.

She chanted, "People with black hearts, animals with cruel objectives, evils all around me! Lend me your energy! Give me your darkness!" She felt a tug at her own life force as the air began to tingle. Black lights twinkled in the distances as dark mist began floated aimlessly towards Videl. Very soon, a black sphere formed above her outstretched hands. It was working!

*~*~*~*

Peril stiffened when she felt something inside her twitch and churn. Apparently Crisis was feeling the saw way began she held the same expression as her sister. Then they began to glow faintly black, if there were such a thing, and a mist began pouring forth from the aura. Erasa nearly jumped back when the two sisters' eyes turned black.

"What's up with them?" asked Sharpner shakily. Vegeta eyed them with a bewildered look on his face. For once, he didn't have the slight clue as to what was going on. He said nothing. Then he felt a weird pull in the pit of his heart, as if someone was trying to tap into something long since buried. Erasa, Sharpner, Goten, and Trunks felt similar feelings, looking around frantically for the source. Then Goku popped back into the scene.

"I'm back!" he exclaimed. "You…uh…guys?" Everyone was silent. "What's wrong?"

"Shh…" Vegeta whispered. "Do you sense that?" Goku looked up, concentrating, then frowned.

"It feeling like…Videl…" he finally replied. "Her ki's no longer clouded."

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Vegeta hissed. "We figured that out a while ago. Videl's doing something. It's seems…familiar, but different somehow." Again, Goku put on his thinking face, then brightened.

"She's using a Genki Dama!" he exclaimed. "Uh…wait a sec, how does she know how to do that?"

"It's not the Genki Dama." Vegeta zoned out for a brief second. "It's dark. She isn't collecting positive energy like you do, Kakorrot. She's collecting negative energy."

"Why would she want to do a silly thing like that? It won't hurt anyone!"

"Because she knows something we don't." Vegeta stared off towards Apocolypse's quickly approaching figure. "Up for a little protection operation?" Goku grinned.

"Definitely." They turned back to the remaining Armageddon Sisters. "What do we do with them?" Vegeta studied their motionless forms and their black eyes.

"Well, I don't have a damn clue why they're reacting differently, but we shouldn't waste our time on them." He powered up. "We'd better go before Apocolypse realizes what your brat's mate is up to."

"Right!" Goku powered up as well and was about to take off, but he quickly tossed Trunk the radar. "Go find the dragonballs, and wish for Earth to repair itself. You two," he turned to Erasa and Sharpner. "Head back to the airship where it's safe."

"At this point, nowhere is safe," Erasa muttered.

*~*~*~*

Videl held her breath when Apocolypse finally made the scene. Instinctive, Videl forced the Kuro Dama higher into the air, beyond the black clouds where no one would see it. Luckily, Apocolypse did not see this action as she landed in front of her.

"Where are they, hostess?" she demanded. "Where are those two insufferable creatures?" Videl shrugged as casual as possible. Apocolypse eyed her carefully, almost making Videl squirmed under her scrutiny. "Why do you raise your arms like that? Do you fear me?"

"Uh…" Videl stammered, quickly tapping into Apocolypse's conscious. "Of course I fear you! You are the Grand Sister, the epitome of evil itself! A lowly hostess like myself does not deserve to be your equal!" Apocolypse cracked a smile.

"I like the way you talk…" she purred as she approached Videl. "But you need not raise your arms. Put them down." Videl panicked. If she let her arms drop, the Kuro Dama would come down with them. It wasn't ready yet.

"I dare not…" she squeaked, trying to act the way she did just under 2 hours ago. "To do so would show disrespect to my master."

"Enough with the sweet talk!" Apocolypse barked. "You're hiding something! I can smell it." She circled Videl slowly, examining her. "Your heart…is lighter than it should be. A proper hostess needs a black heart. That much I know from sitting in that constricting cell of a statue!" She placed one hand on Videl's left arm. "I'm not going to ask you again. Put…your…arms…down." Videl squinted her eyes shut.

"No," she said boldly. Apocolypse growled and in response to Videl's words of defiance, she grabbed the human girl by her short hair.

"Traitor!" the demon accused. "I should have seen it sooner!" Videl gasped, thinking Apocolypse had discovered the Kuro Dama. "I didn't want to believe that boy, but you really are free. You still have the evil in you, but you're not under its control anymore." Videl cried out when Apocolypse's grip got tighter. "You aren't the hostess anymore…You mocked me by pretending you were…And besides…I was going to kill you anyway, hostess or no hostess. Why the hell would we need you anymore anyway?" In a way, this was better than Apocolypse discovering the Kuro Dama, but if she killed Videl, then it would disperse. And that was enough to alarm Videl.

"HELP!!" she screamed. "Somebody!!" Apocolypse sneered.

"No one's going to help you, foolish human," she scoffed. "They think you're evil, so why would they want to help someone who's evil?"

"Because we know she isn't," answered a voice. Apocolypse turned just in time to receive a nasty punch to the jaw, releasing Videl instantly. In front of her stood the two Saiya-jins, Goku and Vegeta. They both had a smirk on their faces and a glint of anticipation in their eyes.

"Well if it isn't you two…" Apocolypse hissed, rubbing her jaw. "Didn't I beat your asses before?" Not waiting for an answer, she charged them, temporarily forgetting about Videl. Taking a moment to thank the heavens for her saviour, Videl continued concentrating on completing the Kuro Dama.

'Are you sure you know how to use that?' asked a voice. Videl nearly had a heart attack, but recognized the voice as Goku.

'Yes,' she replied through her mind. 'Why do you ask?'

'Because no one has ever done what you're doing,' Goku responded. 'I want to make sure you don't go blowing up the planet.' He chuckled. Videl smiled weakly, only because she found it amusing that he could fight and talk at the same time.

'I won't, Goku-san.'

*~*~*~*

"Last one! I found it!" Goten chirped happily.

"Kinda funny its here!" Trunks laughed. The two boys were sitting on top of the Statue of Liberty, where they had found the last dragonball. There wasn't a single person in sight, mostly because after the earthquakes happened, most people abandoned tall buildings. There also weren't any boats or ships in the harbour because of the ongoing tsunamis and high tidal waves. Manhattan was mostly flooded. 

"C'mon, Goten! Hand it over now so we can summon Shenron!" Trunks ordered.

"Here?!" Goten squealed. "But my dad said never to summon the dragon in front of normal people."

"We don't have time for this! The planet's falling apart! Besides, no one's gonna see. There aren't any people around!"

"Oh, okay!" Goten gladly handed over the 6 star dragonball.

"Now what should we say exactly?" Trunks put hand to his chin, acting like he was thinking.

"How about we wish for Earth to return to the way it was before Apocolypse was released?" Goten suggested. "People included." Trunks was almost amazed at how smart Goten was acting, but he didn't show it on the outside.

"I was gonna saw that, stupid!" he yelled. Goten grinned.

"Yeah right."

"Well hurry up! We don't got all day."

"You mean 'we don't _have_ all day', Trunks!"

"Shut up!" The nine year old was about to whack Goten, but instead, yelled out for Shenron to arise. In a blinding light, the dragonballs glowed and Shenron, the dragon guardian, burst forth from the orange spheres. Winding and uncoiling, Shenron gave a mighty roar before solidifying and looming over all of New York. Inhabitants of New York peered out their windows, wondering what else could go wrong, and saw the great, wish-granting dragon floating above the Statue of Liberty. It was probably the most breath-taking sight anyone had ever seen.

Goten and Trunks' eyes were dazzled by the magnificent sight. Even if they had seen Shenron every day for the rest of their lives, they still could never get enough of the sight.

"I am Shenron," the dragon boomed. "State your two wishes and I will grant them!"

"Shenron!" Goten called. "I wish Chikyuu and everyone on it would return to the way they were before Apocolypse was set free from her statue!" Shenron's eyes glowed red briefly. Behind the kids, the waters that flooded Manhattan reseeded back to the ocean.

All over the world, earthquakes ceased, tornadoes dissipated, lightening stopped, tsunamis calmed, and volcanoes returned to mountains. Cities destroyed by Apocolypse, Devil, or any of the disasters were instantly repaired. Videl was given quite a shock when the buildings around her suddenly appeared back to normal in a span of half a second and one burst of light. Peril's hair, which had been burned pretty short, returned to its natural length. People harmed during all the natural disasters became healed, Gohan being one of them. Unfortunately, the scars remained on face only because that happened before Apocolypse.

Goten and Trunks whooped when things around them returned to normal.

"It has been done!" Shenron announced. "Your second wish?" Goten and Trunks froze.

"I forgot about that," Goten muttered.

"I wish you could bring back everyone killed because of Apocolypse!" Trunks blurted. "Let's see how well this works."

Around the world, people killed in floods, volcano bursts, earthquakes, and lightening bolts returned to life. 

"I am done," Shenron declared. "I bid you farewell!" Then, as quickly as he was there, Shenron vanished into the dragonballs in a blinding flash of light. With him gone, the dragonballs raised into the air and disappeared in seven different directions, so they would be discovered a year later.

"We did it!" Trunks cheered. "Now the Earth won't explode!" He gave Goten a high-five. "We'd better get back and see if they need our help."

"Oh yeah," Goten remembered. "We still gotta fight Apocolypse."

"Damn! Now that I think of it, we should have used the dragonballs after we got rid of her!"

"But the Earth wouldn't have survived that long!"

"Yeah, I guess your right." Trunks smirked like his dad. "C'mon! What are you waiting for? Humans to turn super?" Goten gained a grin of anticipation.

"Yeah, let's get her!"

*~*~*~*

Gohan blinked few times, stretching his arm around. 'That's funny…I though it was broken…' He got up, ignoring his mother temporarily, who was fussing over him. He checked each finger, finding them to be in perfect working order, then wound his arm around, finding it was working better than good. Nothing hurt.

"They did it…" he thought out loud.

"Did what?" Chi-chi asked.

"I told Goten and Trunks to get the dragonballs."

"You trusted them with something that important?" Chi-chi snorted. "I'm surprised that they even got them…and fast!" Gohan began jogging in the direction he sensed Videl's ki and spotted her holding her hands high into the air.

"Videl!" he called. Videl's head shot in his direction.

"Gohan!" she cried, smiling, then looking distressful as he edged closer. "No! You have to stay back!" Gohan stopped.

"Why?" he asked, feeling a little hurt.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Videl answered honestly. She pointed up without moving her arms. Gohan looked up and saw the bottom of a black sphere, about the size of a rather small moon, sticking out from the canopy of dark clouds above their heads and near freaked out.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" he screamed. "Holy crap!!"

"Calm down…" Videl sighed. "It's a Kuro Dama and I'm going to use it against Apocolypse...but it's getting too big! I think I might have to move higher into the atmosphere and it almost done so-" Then realization dawned on her. "Your arm…it's okay. Now I feel left out on an explanation. What happened now? Did you get a senzu?"

"Ah…no. Goten and Trunks used the dragonballs, I'm guessing." Then he heard rumbling and the sounds of a fight nearby.

"Your dad and Vegeta are fighting Apocolypse," Videl explained, seeing the puzzled look on his face.

"Gotcha!" He turned to go. "Videl…promise me you'll be okay." Videl hesitated, looking away. "Please, just promise me."

"I can't…" she said softly. Gohan stared at her, not knowing what to do or say. Was she planning something stupid? Before he had a chance to question her, she levitated and flew upwards beyond the black clouds that refused to go away, taking the Kuro Dama with her.

"Please stay safe…" he whispered before flying after Apocolypse.

*~*~*~*

Sukoshin and Kaioshin looked around. They had stopped chanting the spell when everything around them returned to normal. Cairo was once again a great city and thunder slowly quieted down to silence. Sukoshin breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she and Kaioshin had managed to keep the planet from blowing up for so long. Then she blushed when she realized she was still holding Kaioshin's hand. Pulling away in embarrassment, she put on a sheepish grin.

"I guess Sharpner got the message to Goku," she said quietly.

"Yes, it is good that we have resourceful humans around to help us," Kaioshin agreed. An awkward silence followed. Finally Sukoshin sighed.

"Oh hell," she muttered. "If we don't live through this…" She quickly grabbed the back of Kaioshin's head and pulled him into a kiss. A few seconds later, she pulled back. "Alright, I think I'm ready to take on Majin Buu, Apocolypse and even all the Sisters at once." Kaioshin was left speechless, blushing. 

*~*~*~*

Even with the odds stacked against her, Apocolypse still managed to hold her own against two full-blooded super Saiya-jins. She dodged all their pathetic moves with ease, as if she were dancing at a club or a ball. Goku and Vegeta were quickly tiring out, having been fighting for the past 6 hours and not getting any rest since the morning the day before. For Vegeta, he had been awake for 30 hours now. Normally, that was nothing. But a Saiya-jin does deserve rest from fighting every now and then. This was torture!

Apocolypse pummelled them with dark ki blasts left and right, not giving them any breathing room. She didn't have a scratch on her.

"What's the matter, boys?" she taunted. "Am I too much for you?" Vegeta growled and launched forward, trying to land a punch on her, but she caught his fist. "You wouldn't dare hit a lady."

"You're not much of a lady," Vegeta sneered, despite the fact his fist was in danger of being broken. And that was just what Apocolypse would have done…if she hadn't been interrupted by Goku, who kicked her arm, freeing Vegeta.

"You really need to watch what you say," Goku warned.

"Yes, it just slipped out," Vegeta muttered sarcastically. "What have I told you about helping me, Kakorrot?"

"Do whenever you feel it necessary," Goku replied, equally sarcastic. He teleported behind Apocolypse, catching her in a lock. "Hit her now!"

"I know!" Vegeta barked, swing his fists into Apocolypse's stomach. She barely flinched from it all. "C'mon, damn you! What are you made out of? Steel?" Apocolypse sighed before flinging Goku off her back and into Vegeta.

"Bored now…" she yawned, stretching her wings out. She flapped her bat-like wings strongly, producing a dark haze. "Sleep." The dark cloud passed over the two Saiya-jins' head, putting them to sleep at once. "Sweet dreams." Apocolypse smirked and looked back to where Videl was supposed to be. "Oh damn! Where'd the little bitch go? I didn't get to find out what she's hiding!" Looking all around, and stretching out her sixth sense, Apocolypse saw something glowing black from above the clouds. "Bingo." She was about to go after the source, but a figure stopped her.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gohan asked, hands on his shredded Saiyaman suit. Apocolypse gave him a look that said 'I'm not impressed.'

"You again…Back for another round of beatings? I thought I broke your arm!"

"I got better," Gohan snickered, intentionally stalling for time so Videl could finish whatever she was doing.

"Quaint," Apocolypse muttered. Then she clasped her hands together. "Well, I could always fix that!" She sprang forward with the intention of kicking Gohan in the arm again, but Gohan dodged effortlessly. "Nani?!"

"Do you know much about Saiya-jins?" he asked, flexing his arms. "They get stronger after every battle." He punched Apocolypse across the face. "That phrase 'Whatever doesn't kill me can only make me stronger' comes into play very well in this situation," He wound up for another hit. "I may not be strong enough to take you down," he punched her again. "But I am strong enough to defend myself now." Another punch hit home. "And I'm the least of your worries right now anyway." He threw another punch, but Apocolypse caught it.

"What do you mean you're the least of my problems?" she demanded. Gohan grinned.

"The very woman who brought you back into this world is going to take you out again."

"You mean that pathetic excuse for a hostess?" Apocolypse was alarmed, but she hid it very well with a sneer. "Why should I be afraid?"

"She knows something about you…something the rest of us didn't know…your weakness…" Apocolypse nearly gasped, but held it in. She should have known from the start that Devil would obtain her secrets during this summoning. But she never counted on the Golden Light actually turning her back to the good side. Now she really had to kill the hostess. And fast.

Not wasting another second, she slammed Gohan aside and started flying towards the glowing black orb, but was stopped again by two short figures.

"Stop right there!" Trunks yelled. "We want a rematch!"

"People who go to hell don't get rematches," Apocolypse answer innocently. "Now beat it!" She fired two dark ki beams at the boys, but they dodged and did zigzags to throw Apocolypse off. Catching her off-guard, Goten kicked her in the back while Trunks kicked her across the face.

"That's for the sucker-punch!" he yelled. Apocolypse grabbed him by the hair and threw him towards the ground. Then she blasted Goten off with a black ki ball. Moving towards the canopy of clouds once more, she was stopped again by Chi-chi and Piccolo.

"Where do you people keep coming from?!" Apocolypse screamed, almost ready to pull her hair out. "Buzz off!!" Ch-chi ignored her threats and launched at her from the left, using some martial arts moves she had learned from her father while Piccolo attacked from the right.

"I'll teach you to go after my daughter-in-law!" she yelled, trying to punch Apocolypse. The demon was about to strike Chi-chi down, but Gohan had finally recovered from the sneak-attack and clobbered Apocolypse with a round-house kick. Then, he gave her a clothes-hanger strike and landed a kick on her left leg.

"Hurry up, Videl!" he yelled to the clouds above him while trying to hold Apocolypse down.

*~*~*~*

Videl held her breath as she collected the last of the energy she needed…but she felt so terribly weak…and she knew why. She began descending towards the ground so she would be able to get a clear shot at Apocolypse. Gulping once to try removing the lump in her throat, Videl went through the clouds and saw solid ground once more. She could see everything from where she was. A bit further north, Krillin, 18, Marron, Erasa, Sharpner, Bulma, Majin Buu, Mr. Satan, and Yamcha were cowering around the airship. They probably didn't have a clue what was going on other than Cairo being restored. More south, lying on the ground was Crisis and Peril, still black-eyed, but not looking so pale, and further west, Doom was in a similar state. A bit east, Goku and Vegeta appeared to be passed out, snoozing. Then directly below Videl, Gohan, Piccolo and Chi-chi were tag-teaming against Apocolypse while Goten and Trunks were on the ground, cheering for the three.

"It's now or never…" Videl whispered. She looked up, knowing the Kuro Dama was just waiting for her command to destroy Apocolypse. And thank Kami too. Her arms were getting really tired.

"HEY!!" she shouted to the occupants below her. "Gohan! Chi-chi! Piccolo! Clear off!!" The two Sons and the Namek didn't need to be told twice. They were gone in half a second flat, leaving Apocolypse by herself. "So long Apocolypse!" Finally, Videl let her arms drop. The air around her began to tingle with anticipation of what was to come. Apocolypse didn't look impressed yet. 

Suddenly, a massive, enormous black sphere just a tad bit smaller than Pluto burst forth from the canopy of clouds behind Videl. The Kuro Dama sparkled and crackled with energy. It was truly a spectacular sight for all who were present to see it. The former hostess smirked. Apocolypse paled.

"This baby is made up of all the negative energy flowing through this planet!" Videl called, arms crossed. "There's enough here to obliterate ever last molecule in your body! And who would have guessed Earth was an abundant source of dark ki?" Apocolypse began wheezing, never being so terrified in her life. In fact, this was the fist time she had ever been afraid before. The Kuro Dama inched its way slowly towards Chikyuu's surface. 

"What do you think you're doing?!" Apocolypse screamed, trying to regain some composure. "You'll destroy Earth along with me! You're being foolish!"

"Nope!" Videl chirped. "Dark ki doesn't work on landforms. I think you should know best, since every planet you've destroyed…you haven't really destroyed. Only wiped completely of life." Videl was showing off her use of Apocolypse's memories in her subconscious. "Any last words?" Apocolypse growled loudly, then let out a scream of frustration. Wildly cursing, she blindly threw a ki blast at Videl. The raven-haired girl gasped, not expecting that, and the blast hit her dead on in the stomach. No one had saw this because the Kuro Dama had been in their line of sight. She nearly fell out of the sky if she didn't remember she needed to control the Kuro Dama. Focusing as best as she could while suppressing the pain of her wound, she willed the Kuro Dama to move faster. Apocolypse raised her arms in a defensive position to stop the Kuro Dama, like so many villains had done with Goku's Genki Dama, but the Kuro Dama did not stop. Instead, it slipped in-between her fingers.

"No!" she screamed. "Dammit! No!" The Kuro Dama engulfed Apocolypse completely. Shrieks were heard from inside before everything became completely calm and the Kuro Dama dispersed. The black clouds above everyone's heads disappeared and the beautiful afternoon sky was seen.

Silence followed for many moments before the silence was broken by Trunks and Goten's cheering. Gohan cracked a smile while Chi-chi laughed and pulled on his arm, as all the fighters and non-fighters around the airship let out a cheer as well. Sukoshin and Kaioshin smiled warmly, though both were stifling their urges to scream for joy. 

No one thought it could be done. They thought Apocolypse was invincible. They were wrong, thank the gods. Gohan shook his mother off for a moment to see how Videl was taking things…but she wasn't in the air where he thought she'd be. Instead, she was plummeting towards the ground.

"Videl!" he yelled, bursting into action. Moving fast than the eye could see, he arrived just in time to catch Videl from her free-fall. "Videl, are you alright?" He quickly caught sight of her wound in the mid-abdomen, bleeding somewhat. "Oh god…" The rest of the Z group was by his side in seconds. Videl was breathing heavily as she slipped in and out of consciousness. 

"What happened?" Chi-chi yelled above the murmured. "How'd she get hurt?!"

"It's not fair…" Gohan whispered. "We beat Apocolypse and yet…something like this was just bound to happen…"

"I'm sorry…" Videl choked, holding her stomach in pain. "I didn't mean…those awful words I said…about your father…He's a great man…and I'm just a…" Gohan calmed her down and held her hand supportively. Sukoshin pushed her way to the centre of the group and examined Videl carefully.

"Don't we have anymore senzu beans?!" Bulma asked frantically.

"I used the last one on Trunks," Goten admitted sorrowfully. "Please don't die Videl!"

"I don't think a senzu would have done much except heal the wound…" Sukoshin finally said, very upset. "That last attack…took everything from her…" She checked Videl pulse every three seconds. "Did you know what you were getting yourself into?" she asked the teen girl. Videl nodded solemnly.

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked worriedly. Sukoshin sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"I mean she intentionally used every last bit of her dark ki," she explained. "You know as well as I do one cannot live without a part of both light and dark. I've seen people use the Kuro Dama before. Every time, the result is the same. The user's dark ki is sapped dry. Without dark ki, they pass away…" 

"You mean Videl's gonna die, even with a senzu bean?!" Gohan yelled. "No! There's gotta be another way!"

"I'm sorry…" Gohan couldn't believe it. Videl knew along that this would kill her! That's why she wouldn't promise she'd be alright. "I'm so sorry…but there is none…wait…there is something!" Everyone was jolted out of they morbid thoughts. "I…I can't think of the object! It's on the tip of my tongue! Damn, what is it?!"

"The hostess essence?" asked a tiny voice. Everyone turned to see little bashful Marron staring at Sukoshin with big bright eyes. Sukoshin looked back, feeling a mix of emotions, mostly a cross between absolute praise and happiness, and surprise. Marron had been able to pick out the right item because she was not as panicky as everyone else. Being nervous or edgy tended to make people not think too clearly, therefore make bad judgements or rash decisions.

"That is exactly what we need…" Sukoshin whispered, wanting to take Marron and hug her. "But where is it?"

"West wall of the Great Pyramid," Marron answered happily.

"Of course…" Sukoshin was becoming more and more surprised as to how Marron knew more about the essence than she did. "How did you know?"

"You told me!" Marron replied. Of course she remembered. Sukoshin probably though at the time that the young little girl wouldn't remember and only pretend to understand, but Marron really did have a great memory and a high understanding of most things explained to her.

"Yes…Trunks, you take Marron to go get the sphere! Marron, I'm guessing you know what it looks like."

"Yep."

"Good. But we still need a senzu for Videl's injury, or the hostess's essence sphere will be not good!" While Trunks and Marron took off to retrieve the essence orb, Gohan zoned out for a moment, patting the pocket of his Saiyaman suit. He froze when his fingers trailed over a tiny, marble-sized object in the left pocket. Reaching in, he pulled out a tiny…green…senzu.

"Oh my god…" he mumbled. It was the senzu his mother had given him that day she did laundry and found it in one of his pants pockets. "I've got one!" he yelled, holding the life-saving bean in his hand. "I found one!"

"Are you serious?!" Chi-chi freaked. "Thank Dende! Everything's gonna be okay then!"

"I was so worried!" Erasa agreed, relaxing a bit. Trunks and Marron returned from the wreckage of the Great Pyramids with a blackish-red orb in Marron's tiny hands. Sukoshin expressed her thanks and took the sphere, then held it awkwardly above Videl body's, which was supported by Gohan.

"Um…any idea how it works?" Kaioshin asked, staring at the sphere, puzzled. Sukoshin began sweating.

"I think…I'm not sure…" she whimpered.

"You hold it above her heart," offered a voice. Sukoshin spun around to see Peril with her arms crossed across her chest.

"Why should we trust you?"

"Look, you don't have much time or a choice. Either you take my advice and she lives…or you let her die." Sukoshin bit her bottom lip and followed Peril's instructions. She placed the essence sphere above Videl's heart. The sphere glowed red and disappeared into Videl's body. "There, see?" Videl gasped, but did not open her eyes. This was actually a good sigh that showed she was still alive.

"Why are you helping us anyway?" Goku asked the blue-haired half-demon. Peril sighed.

"I never wanted to be a bad guy. Doom dragged me into this. I just want to be one of those redeemable heroes that make a final effort to be good."

Sukoshin checked Videl's pulse again, which was slightly stronger.

"Now the senzu…" she whispered. Gohan placed the bean in Videl's mouth and massaged her throat to get her to swallow, but she didn't. He tried again, but got the same results.

"She won't take it!" he exclaimed fearfully. "I don't know what's wrong!"

"If she won't take it…she might…" Goten sniffed, wiping his tears. Gohan had to think quick. How else could he give her the senzu bean? It was like she was rejecting it on purpose. Then one idea popped into his mind and he nearly threw aside that idea if it wasn't the only idea he had to go on. It was just so…embarrassing…but it was the only way to give her the senzu.

"Guys…" he said, calling everyone's attention. "I think the only way…to get her to take the senzu is if…" He gulped. "I give it to her by…um…" He silently pleaded to Sukoshin to help him out. Sukoshin clicked in with what he had planned.

"Just do it, Gohan! We don't have much time…" she encouraged. Gohan took a deep breath. He nodded and looked to Videl's face.

'I already did it once before day…so I can do this again…but there weren't any people gawking.' Shaking off all his fears and doubts, Gohan followed through with his idea shyly. He popped the senzu bean into his own mouth and leaned down, very gently kissing Videl. Chi-chi and Mr. Satan nearly went berserk for totally different reasons. Goten and Trunks were very close to bursting out laughing. Bulma thought the whole thing was romantic and scolded Vegeta for not doing something like that with her, while he only rolled his eyes. Goku didn't have a clue as to why a kiss would help in this situation.

In a moment's time, the magic healing bean had done its job and healed the wound in Videl's stomach (only now did Goku understand what the kiss was for). Videl's eyes twitched for a moment, then relaxed as her hand found its way onto the back of Gohan's neck. Finally, Trunks and Goten could not contain their giggles and burst into laughter. Videl's eyes snapped open and she quickly saw her surroundings. Turning an odd shade of red, Gohan quickly pulled back.

"Gomen!" he apologized. "Gomen nasai! I'll never do that again, I swear, never without your permission." Everyone couldn't help but smile or giggle at this sight, Gohan acting like a goof and Videl acting like she was Sleeping Beauty, just waking up from the longest slumber of her life.

"Gohan…it's alright," Videl assured.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly. "You're not hurt anymore, are you?"

"I'm fine!" Videl replied. Gohan eagerly hugged her, hiding the tears that were forming in his eyes.

"I was so worried," he said, his voice muffled by her shoulder. "You scared me half to death with that stunt! God, I'm so thankful you're alive." Videl returned the hug.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," she whispered weakly with a soft smile. There was an appreciated silence before Sukoshin cleared her throat.

"We should get back," she whispered, so not to disturb the teens. "I'm sure everyone's tired…so we'll take the airship and turn it to autopilot." The others murmured in agreement, each turning to leave. Soon, it was just Sukoshin, Gohan, and Videl left. "Videl…" Videl looked up at the sound of her name. "I wanted to wait until everyone was gone."

"Maybe I should…" Gohan mumbled.

"No, stay. This involves you too." Sukoshin took a deep breath and sat down beside the two. "So…the whole time…you knew the Kuro Dama would cost you your life…why did you do it then?" Videl looked down, ashamed and wiped her cheeks of dirt.

"I thought…it was the best attack anyone could use…" she answered. "I thought it didn't matter what happened to me, as long as the planet's safe."

"I could have thought of a million better attacks to use…" Sukoshin whispered. "Of course, I'd never be able to use them like you." Gohan looked back and forth from Sukoshin to Videl. "There must have been a different reason."

"I…" Videl stammered. "I…I used all my ki and darkness because…I didn't want to…live." Gohan gasped. Sukoshin's expression changed from content to worried.

"What?" Gohan nearly yelled. "You can't be serious…" He looked into her eyes, so full of sorrow. "You are serious…why?"

"You know why!" Videl shouted. "Look around! Look how much pain I caused! Look at how many people suffered because of me! My life is ruined! I yelled at my dad, told off all my friends, screamed at the police chief, and I tried to kill you! I even had the nerve to insult your father…those cruel things I said…" Gohan couldn't believe what he was hearing. All that…was enough to drive her to suicide? "It was my fault Apocolypse was released…" She choked back a sob as tears trailed down her face, then she traced her fingers along the cuts on Gohan's face. "It's my fault you have those scars on your face…" Gohan took her hand.

"It's not your fault…" he whispered. "Don't you think if we thought it was your fault, we would have said so? If we really thought you did those things on your own, we would have let you die then and there! But we didn't! We saved your life because we care about you! Look…some people in your position would never get over something like this…but I know you can. You're too strong to let a few inconveniences bring you down!"

"If I'm so strong, then how'd the Sisters get control of me in the first place?!"

"You were strong! You fought the spell, remember?" Videl froze.

"I did?"

"Of course! When they cast the spell that afternoon, you started screamed for nearly ten minutes. You were resisting the spell! Sukoshin said not many can do that!" Sukoshin nodded in agreement. "And you're life's not ruined! So you told off your father. He knows why now and he still loves you. You screamed at the police chief. He doesn't care, he thought you were sick that day. You yelled at your friends. They'll get over it. You tried to kill me…" Videl whimpered. "I'm still alive, aren't I?  And even after all that…I still love you…" Videl's head shot up. 

"You what?" she breathed.

"I…love you…I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you…remember how you dragged me to the tournament last year? If we hadn't gone, Babidi would have released Buu and we'd all be dead anyway…" She began crying a little harder. She understood now. Life was a precious thing and she nearly threw hers away. She didn't even consider anyone else's feelings when she flew off the handle with her attack. She didn't even think that Gohan might've care a great deal. But now she felt at peace. The pain still lingered, but she knew she wasn't alone.

"Gohan…" she whispered. Instead of talking, she kissed him passionately. Pulling away, she smiled when he blushed. "You have my permission now…"

"Guh?" he mumbled.

"Permission to kiss me, silly!" She and Gohan began to laugh. "I love you, Son Gohan." She gave him a big hug. "I'm just wondering why it took me so long to figure that out." She laughed a little. "We'd better get back…the others are probably wondering where we are." Gohan nodded and lifted Videl off the ground, carrying her back to the airship along side Sukoshin. 

The trip back to Capsule Corp. was uneventful. The group was very wary of Peril, who had accompanied them. But Sukoshin confirmed that the girl's mind was no longer clouded. Apparently when Videl had been drawing energy for her Kuro Dama, Peril, Doom, and Crisis' dark ki had been cut in half. Now none of the girls were capable of evil intentions. Of course, Peril was the only one to admit so.

Ch-chi and Mr. Satan were fussing over Videl, checking that she was alright. Marron now had a new level of appreciation and admiration from her parents. Goten, too, was looked at in a new light, because he proved his intelligence back in the pyramids and resourcefulness with the senzu beans from Korin and the dragonballs, collected and summoned in record timing. Even Chi-chi was given credit for helping out Gohan when he needed it most. And she was also praised for giving Gohan the live-saving senzu bean on that laundry day. The two teens, Erasa and Sharpner, received commendations for saving Gohan's life back in Cairo and for helping to tap into Videl's good side. 

Bulma discussed having a party to celebrate yet another battle won to keep Chikyuu safe. It'd probably be held a few days later because right now, everyone just wanted to sleep. For the most part, after congratulations were handed out, 3/4 of the crew went straight to sleep. Marron was curled up on Trunks' lap, and Goten was sleeping beside his mother, snoring loudly. Gohan and Videl made a rather cute sight. Videl was asleep in his arms, while Gohan was resting his head on the window beside him. The only ones wide awake were Buu, 18, Kaioshin, and Sukoshin. Even Vegeta had dozed off, muttering something about the longest fight in his life. 

Arriving back to Capsule Corp. around sundown, the exhausted crew dragged themselves inside and to random guest bedrooms to take a long, _long_ nap. Chi-chi nearly yelled at Gohan when he took the same room as Videl, but Mr. Satan calmed her down, saying they were responsible.

Gohan gently placed Videl in her bed and turned to get a cot, but he heard her mumble his name.

"Where are you going?" she whispered, rubbing her eyes.

"I'm getting a spare bed from Bulma," Gohan answered, suppressing a yawn. 

"Don't go…" she whispered. "I don't wanna be alone…" Not really know what to say, Gohan sat on the side of the bed. Videl sat up a bit. "You don't have to sit all the way over there. There's enough room for two people." Gohan flushed red as he crawled timidly beside Videl.

"Are you sure…?" he asked. "I mean…I could just get the cot and…"

"It's no problem." She smiled warmly. "I just…I don't want you to go…I wanna make sure I really didn't…kill you…" She sniffed as her eyes flooded with tears again. "The memories…they keep coming back…" Gohan gently wiped away her unshed tears.

"Don't cry…" he whispered. "I'm still here. I'm still alive! See?" He patted his chest to show he wasn't a ghost.

"I know it sounds silly, but…" Videl sniffed again, rubbing her eyes. "For a second, I truly thought you were dead…and it was my fault."

"We've been through this…it wasn't your fault…nothing was." He smiled. "You want me to just lie next to you?" Videl smiled.

"Sure. Anything to remind me you're alright." She wrapped her arms around Gohan's waist and closed her eyes. "Kagirinai heiwa."[2] Gohan blinked a few times and was about to question Videl, but she was already sound asleep. Thinking it was a random outburst, he shook it off. But her words did have a hidden mean. This was the last time they'd have to risk someone's life to save the world. This was the last time he'd have to worry that Videl's life was in danger. _Eternal peace._

*~*~*~*

Next Saturday, Bulma held her party with everyone invited. Even Dende arrived, apologizing for not helping very much during the big fight. It was a big feast, and since Vegeta wasn't sure if the chefs would make enough food, he helped out with the cooking (O.o). While Gohan had been talking with Videl, Chi-chi eavesdropped and announced to everyone present that Gohan and Videl were dating. Then she and Bulma began making plans for their wedding and what sort of clothes their kids would wear. At the end of the night, Sukoshin and Kaioshin bid everyone a fond farewell, for this was the last time they'd be allowed to interfere with mortals lives. But, as Sukoshin later said, mortals were welcomed to interfere with the gods' lives. All they had to do was use the heavenly portal installed on Kami's lookout.

Generally, everyone agreed it was the most action packed March Break they had every had.

The following Monday morning back at school, Gohan, Videl, Sharpner, and Erasa acted as if nothing eventful had happened during their March Break. When asked by fellow classmates if they felt the earthquakes, the teens replied 'What earthquakes?' 

When others saw Gohan and Videl hanging out together, they assumed the two had made up after the fight they had at the Armagens, so the others treated Gohan with a higher amount of respect. And speaking of the Armagens, Peril and Crisis returned to school as well, going by their alter egos and doing their best to make up for the trouble they had caused. Doom refused to associate with 'mere humans' and left Earth on her ship, leaving Crisis and Peril homeless. Feeling bad for the two, Videl offered them the guest bedrooms at her mansion until the two were old enough (or at least looked old enough) to get their own house.

Things returned to normal rather quickly. Videl got over her experience, with lots of help from her new boyfriend, Gohan, and her ever-closer friends, Erasa and Sharpner. And the whole incident had caused Erasa and Sharpner to become closer.

Sukoshin and Kaioshin also began a relationship. By order of the Council of the Gods, they reappointed Sukoshin as the Supreme Kai, but she turned it down, saying she didn't deserve it. She wasn't the one who fought Majin Buu twice and lived. Much later, she received tips from Bulma concerning her and Kaioshin's wedding.

Vegeta, feeling guilty for not cooking more often, spared his son of eating anymore of Bulma's cooking and took on the job for full-time cook of the house, when he wasn't training in the gravity room.

Using the excuse that video games saved everyone's butts, Goten was given more puzzle games for his Playstation, such as Dragon Warrior 7, Final Fantasy 10, and other widely known titles.

Gohan never teased him about playing too many games again.

*~*~*~* The End *~*~*~*

FINALLY DONE!! Whew, that was a lot of typing! I'm so glad I got this done before school started up again!

[1] Kuro means dark/black and Dama, as you should all know, means bomb.

[2] Kagirinai heiwa means 'Eternal/endless peace/harmony'.


End file.
